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Kospi breaks new ground, soaring past the 5,900 mark for first time

Published: 23 Feb. 2026, 09:30 Updated: 23 Feb. 2026, 09:33

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi opening on Feb. 23. [YONHAP]

The benchmark Kospi surged past the 5,900 mark for the first time in history during intraday trading on Monday.

As of 9:04 a.m., the Kospi was up 2.15 points at 5,931.64 from the previous session on Friday.

Foreign and retail investors were net buyers, purchasing 65.1 billion won ($45.2 million) and 114 billion won worth of shares, respectively, while institutional investors were net sellers of 174 billion won.

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix led the rally, each rising 3.73 percent and 2.63 percent. Samsung Electronics is approaching the 200,000-won threshold, while SK hynix is nearing 1 million won per share.

At the same time, the tech-heavy Kosdaq gained 1.12 percent to 1,166.88. Foreign and retail investors bought a net 7.9 billion won and 19 billion won worth of shares, respectively, while institutions off-loaded a net 20.5 billion won.

The local currency strengthened 6.35 won from the previous session to trade at 1,440.25 won against the greenback at 9:15 a.m.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHO MUN-GYU [[email protected]]