{"id":23609,"date":"2026-07-31T22:23:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23609"},"modified":"2026-07-31T22:23:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:23:54","slug":"seoul-shares-surge-record-18-pct-to-reclaim-6500-point-level-on-chip-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23609","title":{"rendered":"Seoul shares surge record 18 pct to reclaim 6,500-point level on chip rally"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/2811785517975\/2026\/i\/17855183152677\/v1.5\/Seoul-shares-surge-record-18-pct-to-reclaim-6500-point-level-on-chip-rally.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This photo, taken Friday, shows the trading room of Hana Bank in Seoul as South Korean stocks skyrocketed by a record eighteen percent on semiconductor gains. Photo by Yonhap<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>South Korean stocks skyrocketed by a record 18 percent to reclaim the 6,500-point level Friday, driven by robust semiconductor gains as better-than-expected Microsoft earnings eased concerns over artificial intelligence (AI) spending. The local currency rose sharply against the U.S. dollar.<\/p>\n<p>The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 1,001.89 points, or 17.91 percent to close at 6,595.45, sharply rebounding from a three-session deep rout caused by a drop in chipmakers and other AI-related stocks.\n<\/p>\n<p>It marked the largest single-day gain in the index&#8217;s history, surpassing the previous record increase of 11.95 percent set on Oct. 30, 2008.<\/p>\n<p>The KOSPI had shed more than 17 percent over the previous three sessions, largely due to anxiety over heavy spending on AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Investor sentiment, however, improved after Microsoft reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings overnight, beating forecasts for sales and cloud-computing growth.<\/p>\n<p>Trade volume was heavy at 430.2 million shares worth 48.9 trillion won (US$34.2 billion), with gainers outnumbering decliners 772 to 127.<\/p>\n<p>Foreigners and institutions led the upbeat market, purchasing a net 7.22 trillion won and a net 1.15 trillion won, respectively, while individuals dumped a net 8.26 trillion won.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Semiconductor shares were the main driver of the KOSPI&#8217;s surge,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Kim_Seok\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Kim Seok\" class=\"tpstyle\">Kim Seok<\/a>-hwan, an analyst from Mirae Asset Securities, said. &#8220;Earnings of large data center operators, such as Microsoft and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Amazoncom\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Amazon\" class=\"tpstyle\">Amazon<\/a>, eased concerns over AI investment and pushed up stocks here.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>As part of the government&#8217;s measures to curb market volatility, meanwhile, the minimum cash deposit required to invest in single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) increased to 30 million won from the previous 10 million, starting Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Market bellwether Samsung Electronics shot up 26.81 percent to 262,500 won, and SK hynix surged by a daily limit of 29.95 percent to 1.72 million won.<\/p>\n<p>Hanmi Semiconductor, a leading chip equipment manufacturer, soared 27.98 percent to 214,500 won, and SK Square, the parent of SK hynix, escalated by a daily limit of 29.91 percent to 1.04 million won.<\/p>\n<p>Carmakers and shipbuilders were strong as Hyundai Motor jumped 10.54 percent to 388,000 won, and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries mounted 7.37 percent to 481,000 won.<\/p>\n<p>Defense stocks were also in positive territory on renewed military tensions and strong earnings, with industry leader Hanwha Aerospace rising 6.01 percent to 917,000 won and LIG D&amp;A vaulting 9.05 percent to 699,000 won.<\/p>\n<p>The Korean won was quoted at 1,424 won against the U.S. dollar as of 3:30 p.m., up 13.4 won from the close of stock trading the day before.<\/p>\n<p>Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year Treasurys fell 7.3 basis points to 3.758 percent, while the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds dropped 6.3 basis points to 4.015 percent.\n<\/p>\n<p><i>Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This photo, taken Friday, shows the trading room of Hana Bank in Seoul as South Korean stocks skyrocketed by a record eighteen percent on semiconductor gains. Photo by Yonhap South Korean stocks skyrocketed by a record 18 percent to reclaim the 6,500-point level Friday, driven by robust semiconductor gains as better-than-expected Microsoft earnings eased concerns&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/i\/2811785517975\/2026\/1\/17855183152677\/v1.5\/Seoul-shares-surge-record-18-pct-to-reclaim-6500-point-level-on-chip-rally.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}