Reuters-Yonhap News
South Korea’s stock market opened strong in pre-market trading on Monday, led by semiconductor stocks, after U.S. equities surged on chip strength Friday despite stalled negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) traded at 284,500 won in pre-market as of 8:04 a.m., up 16,000 won, or 5.96%, from the previous session. SK hynix (000660.KS) climbed 107,000 won, or 6.35%, to 1.793 million won. SK Square (402340.KS) rose 7.92% to 1.185 million won, while Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) gained 2.12% to 626,000 won.
The market shrugged off news that talks between the United States and Iran had hit another impasse. U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that Iran’s negotiating proposal was “totally unacceptable,” but investors focused on the artificial intelligence (AI) chip outlook and the global tech stock rally rather than Middle East risks.
U.S. equities closed broadly higher Friday, supported by solid April employment data and strength in semiconductor stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.02%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.84% and 1.7%, respectively. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumped 5.5%.
Among individual stocks, Apple rose 2.1%, while Intel surged 14.0% on news of a chip supply contract. Micron climbed 15.5% and SanDisk gained 16.6%, as funds flowed into memory and storage-related names, significantly improving investor sentiment.
“The sustainability of the chip-led market rally from last week is the key variable this week,” said Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities. “Whether earnings from Cisco Systems and Applied Materials (AMAT) can extend expectations for the AI data center and HBM investment cycle will be critical.”
However, growing profit-taking pressure following the recent steep rally in semiconductor stocks is cited as a risk factor. Since the start of May, shares of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have risen 21% and 31%, respectively. Foreign investors also shifted to net selling later last week in the KOSPI market after large net purchases earlier in the week, signaling short-term trading behavior.
This Kind of Market, That Kind of Stock