South Korea's benchmark KOSPI surpassed the 8,600-point mark while its total market capitalization broke through 7,000 trillion won, extending a sharp rally after crossing 8,500 points earlier in the session.
According to the Korea Exchange, the KOSPI's market capitalization exceeded 7,000 trillion won at around 9:30 a.m. on Monday.
Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), the KOSPI's bellwether, was leading the index higher with a 2.84 percent gain at the same time, buoyed by reports that it became the world's first to ship samples of HBM4E, the seventh-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) product. Samsung Electronics' market capitalization stood at around 1,905.8868 trillion won, surpassing 2,000 trillion won when including preferred shares.
LG Group stocks were showing particular strength in the market. LG Electronics rose to its daily price limit during the session, while LG Innotek (+15.57%), LG (+20.05%), and LG CNS (+21.27%) surged.
CEO Huang is expected to visit Korea this week to meet with LG Group Chairman Kwang-mo Koo to discuss expanding cooperation in physical AI. Buying interest is concentrated on related stocks amid speculation that, beyond the physical AI partnership with LG Electronics, cooperation plans with affiliates including the LG AI Research Institute, LG Innotek, and LG Uplus could also be on the agenda.
"As AI infrastructure investment is underway, the upward trend in the Korean stock market will continue," said Kang Hyun-ki, an analyst at DB Securities. "Signals pointing to gains in leading stocks, such as the semiconductor sector, remain intact." He projected that the KOSPI could climb past 10,000 points in the second half of the year, potentially reaching as high as 11,700.
