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Kospi surpasses 5,500 mark as chips drive rally

Published: 12 Feb. 2026, 11:34

KIM JU-YEON
[email protected]

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi trading at 5,504.56 points on Feb. 12. [YONHAP]

The Kospi surpassed the landmark 5,500 mark during intraday trading on Thursday, with chips leading the rally.

Korea's benchmark index jumped 2.72 percent, or 145.64 points, from the previous session to 5,500.13 as of 10:55 a.m.

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Retail investors were net sellers of 1.94 trillion won ($1.34 billion), while foreign investors and institutions bought a net 1.13 trillion won and 794.9 billion won, respectively.

Investor sentiment overall was buoyed by a stronger-than-expected U.S. unemployment report for January, raising expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve may keep interest rates unchanged.

Chip giant Samsung Electronics soared 6.26 percent to 178,300 won as of 10:55 a.m., marking the first time it has crossed the 170,000 won mark during regular trading hours.

SK hynix rose 3.6 percent in the same period to 891,000 won.

The gains tracked overnight strength in U.S. chip shares, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index closing up 2.28 percent on Tuesday.

Micron surged 9.9 percent after denying concerns it had been excluded from supplying Nvidia with its sixth-generation high bandwidth memory chips, or HBM4.

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]