South Korea’s benchmark stock index, the Kospi, achieved another **record high** on Thursday, marking its third consecutive session of unprecedented closes. This impressive rally in the **South Korean stock market** was primarily fueled by robust corporate earnings reports.
The **Kospi index** surged by 0.9 percent, closing at an impressive 6,475.81 points. This performance extends its **record-breaking streak** to a third straight trading session, continuing the momentum observed since Tuesday.
Throughout intraday trading, the **benchmark Kospi** even broke the 6,500-point threshold for the first time, reaching a new high of 6,557.76. However, it later pared some of these significant gains. The index dipped as low as 6,309.1 before recovering partially by the market close.
Market activity saw retail investors actively buying, acquiring 451.4 billion won ($304.7 million) worth of shares. In contrast, foreign investors offloaded 49.9 billion won, and institutional investors sold 329.6 billion won in equities.
Leading the surge were **South Korea’s** semiconductor giants, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Both companies’ shares attained **record highs** during both intraday trading and at the closing bell.
Samsung Electronics’ shares closed up 3.22 percent at 224,500 won, after touching an intraday **record price** of 229,500 won. Similarly, SK hynix saw a 0.16 percent rise, ending at 1,225,000 won, following an earlier session high of 1,267,000 won.
A major catalyst for SK hynix’s performance was its robust financial disclosure. Earlier in the day, the company announced all-time high sales of 52.6 trillion won for the January-March period, coupled with a staggering 405 percent jump in operating profit to 37.6 trillion won.
Despite the broader market optimism, shares of LG Energy Solution experienced a 3.72 percent decline, while Hyundai Motor’s stock dropped by 1.66 percent.
Further bolstering **investor sentiment** was **South Korea’s** remarkable 1.7 percent first-quarter GDP growth. This represented the nation’s fastest economic expansion in over five years and significantly surpassed market projections, indicating strong **economic fundamentals**.
“The market gains were strongly supported by significant export growth, particularly driven by **semiconductors** and other IT products. This clearly highlights the underlying strength of **South Korea’s** economic resilience,” commented Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities.
silverstar
