The rebound and the session numbers
The Seoul bourse closed Wednesday's session sharply higher, recovering the marked losses of the previous day. According to a report by The Korea Herald, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 182.92 points, or 3.29%, closing at 5,735.66 points after touching an intraday high of 5,816.43. The rebound follows a nearly 4% decline in the previous session, when concerns about massive investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure resurfaced.
The strength of the rally prompted the Korea Exchange to activate a buy sidecar shortly before 11 a.m., temporarily suspending program buying for five minutes after KOSPI 200 futures had exceeded +5%. It was the first such activation in two months. Trading volume remained modest: 214.35 million shares traded, with a turnover of 17.16 trillion won, about $12.96 billion.
The leading stocks and investment flows
The recovery was driven by semiconductor stocks. Samsung Electronics, the market's bellwether stock, gained 5.67% to 223,500 won, while SK hynix rose 5.81% to 1.29 million won. According to The Korea Herald, the improvement in sentiment came after better-than-expected results from U.S. AI server maker Super Micro Computer, which helped ease fears about artificial intelligence-related investments.
Among other stocks, SK Corp., the SK group's holding company, jumped 12.62% to 482,000 won, recovering from a nearly 8% decline in the previous session. LS Electric, an electrical equipment manufacturer, rose 7.02% to 166,100 won after reporting better-than-expected third-quarter results, supported by demand from AI data centers. Bucking the trend, LIG D&A plunged 9.03% to 498,500 won after South Korea's defense procurement agency banned the company from participating in defense contract bids for two years over alleged corruption charges.
In terms of flows, foreign investors bought a net 659.96 billion won, while retail and institutional investors sold a net 1.13 trillion won and 72.22 billion won, respectively. The number of decliners (487) exceeded that of advancers (372).
The currency picture and analyst commentary
In the currency market, the Korean won strengthened slightly against the U.S. dollar, standing at 1,325.2 won per dollar at 3:30 p.m., up 0.8 won from the previous close.
Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, attributed the local market's rebound to bargain hunting after the previous session's heavy selling, supported by easing concerns over oil prices and interest rates and by Super Micro's positive results. The remark was reported by The Korea Herald.
In the international context, U.S. stock markets closed mixed: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.02%, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.02%.
