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Seoul stocks jump over 5% on chip rally

Published: 18 Mar. 2026, 17:22

A screen at Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 5,925.03 on March 18, up 284.55 points, or 5.04 percent, from the previous trading session. [NEWS1]

Korean stocks surged more than 5 percent on Wednesday on a semiconductor rally boosted by the ongoing U.S. chip giant Nvidia's global AI conference. The won strengthened against the dollar.

The Kospi closed up 284.55 points, or 5.04 percent, to 5,925.03.

The index came under strong buying pressure from foreigners and institutional investors, triggering the Korea Exchange (KRX), the country's main bourse operator, to issue a buy-side sidecar near the closing bell.

Program trading for the Kospi was suspended for five minutes at 2:34 p.m., according to the KRX.

Offshore and institutional investors snapped up a combined net 4 trillion won ($2.7 billion) worth of equities. Retail investors, on the other hand, offloaded 3.9 trillion won.

Trade volume was heavy at 1.1 billion shares worth 26.1 trillion won, with winners far outnumbering losers 614 to 278.

Investors' appetite for semiconductors increased following remarks from Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang on Samsung Electronics, Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said.

During the ongoing four-day event in California, Huang said on Monday that he wants to “thank Samsung, which manufactures the Groq LP30 chip” for the company, adding that the chips are in production and would be shipped in the second half of this year.

“The stock market's sensitivity to geopolitical issues in the Middle East is markedly declining,” Lee added.

A screen at Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 5,925.03 on March 18, up 284.55 points, or 5.04 percent, from the previous trading session. [NEWS1]

Most large-cap shares ended bullish.

Top-cap Samsung Electronics jumped 7.53 percent to 208,500 won, and its chipmaking rival SK hynix climbed 8.87 percent to 1,056,000 won.

Nuclear power plant builder Doosan Enerbility rose 2.78 percent to 107,300 won on anticipations that alternative energy sources would benefit from the recent spike in oil prices.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, has remained at the $100 per barrel level for the past five sessions.

In contrast, defense shares lost ground as investors went to lock in profits. Hanwha Aerospace inched down 0.43 percent to 1,390,000 won, and LIG Nex1 retreated 2.27 percent to 689,000 won.

The won strengthened by 10.5 won from the previous session to trade at 1,483.1 against the dollar as of 3:30 p.m.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year Treasurys fell 6.3 basis points to 3.261 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds retreated 6.7 basis points to 3.511 percent.

Yonhap