The KOSPI is up more than 2% in pre-market trading on Tuesday, riding the momentum from its all-time high a day earlier. Overnight gains in New York, where technology stocks led by Nvidia drove all three major indexes to record highs, combined with anticipation surrounding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's visit to Korea and his expected meetings with major corporations, have fueled strong investor sentiment. After closing at 8,788.38 the previous day — just 211 points shy of the 9,000 mark — the KOSPI is poised to challenge that threshold on Tuesday.
According to Next Trade, as of 8:10 a.m. in the pre-market session, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) was trading at 367,000 won, up 5.16% from the previous session, while SK hynix (000660.KS) was up 2.07% at 2.412 million won. Stocks identified as beneficiaries of meetings with CEO Huang are surging sharply. LG Electronics (066570.KS), which hit the daily upper limit for two consecutive sessions the previous day, jumped 16.82%. SK Telecom rose 17.38%, Naver (035420.KS) gained 8.47%, and Doosan (000150.KS) climbed 7.54% — names mentioned in Huang's Computex keynote address or those tied to expectations of meetings during his Korea visit. The KOSPI's rally from the previous day extended into Tuesday's pre-market session. On Monday, the KOSPI broke through the 8,500 level shortly after the open and quickly approached 8,800, with a buy-side sidecar briefly triggered during intraday trading.
Overnight, U.S. markets showed early volatility on concerns over a halt in U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks, but rebounded on President Donald Trump's reassuring remarks and strength in artificial intelligence (AI) leaders. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.09%, the S&P 500 gained 0.26%, and the Nasdaq advanced 0.42%, with all three indexes closing at record highs. Nvidia surged 6.26% after unveiling the "N1 X," an AI PC chip developed jointly with Microsoft in Taiwan. The announcement lifted Dell Technologies and HP, while incumbent players Intel and Qualcomm fell, stirring expectations of a reshuffling of leadership in the PC processor market. After the closing bell, server maker HPE reported strong earnings and surged more than 30% in after-hours trading, reaffirming explosive demand for AI hardware.
Securities firms are also raising their outlook on the chip leaders. On Tuesday, Daishin Securities raised its target prices for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to 560,000 won and 3.4 million won, respectively, saying it is "an environment where investors can afford to be bolder." While more conservative than SK Securities' targets of 610,000 won and 4 million won presented the previous day, there is broad agreement that the leading stocks have ample room for further gains. Daishin Securities cited Samsung's strengthened position in the global supply chain and SK hynix's shareholder return policies, including special dividends, as powerful catalysts for further upside.
However, extreme market concentration warrants caution. Since May, the KOSPI has surged 33.2% while the KOSDAQ has plunged 11.9%, signaling growing polarization. Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said, "The current stock market is in a phase where narratives — not macro factors or earnings — drive share prices." She added, "While holding leading stocks such as semiconductors remains a valid strategy even amid future volatility expansion, investors need to combine this with a barbell strategy of accumulating earnings-driven stocks in previously overlooked sectors such as securities, power equipment, and shipbuilding."
