The KOSPI broke through both the 8,500 and 8,600 levels simultaneously, lifted by strength in Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS) and a broad rally in LG Group shares following news of a meeting between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and LG (003550.KS) Group Chairman Kwang-mo Koo.
According to the Korea Exchange, the KOSPI was trading at 8,585.38 points around 9:10 a.m. Monday, up 109.2 points or 1.29% from the previous session. The index opened at 8,485.67 points, up 9.52 points or 0.11%, before extending gains in early trading. The KOSPI rose as high as 8,603.79 points during the session, surpassing both the 8,500 and 8,600 marks for the first time ever.
Buying by retail and institutional investors drove the index higher. Retail investors net bought 629.5 billion won and institutional investors net bought 289.2 billion won in early trading. Foreign investors, by contrast, net sold 949 billion won — close to 1 trillion won — on the first trading day of June.
Among the top market-cap stocks on the main board, Samsung Electronics (+3.47%), Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) (+6.22%), Samsung Life Insurance (032830.KS) (+1.29%), Hyundai Mobis (012330.KS) (+4.95%) and Samsung C&T (028260.KS) (+4.86%) advanced, while SK hynix (-1.03%), SK Square (402340.KS) (-1.05%), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (009150.KS) (-4.94%) and LG Energy Solution (373220.KS) (-0.44%) declined.
LG Group shares posted particularly strong gains. LG Electronics (066570.KS) hit the daily upper limit during the session, while LG Innotek (011070.KS) (+15.57%), LG (+20.05%) and LG CNS (064400.KS) (+21.27%) surged.
Huang is expected to visit Korea this week and meet with LG Group Chairman Kwang-mo Koo to discuss expanding cooperation on physical AI. In addition to physical AI cooperation with LG Electronics, the talks may also cover collaboration with affiliates including LG AI Research, LG Innotek and LG Uplus, drawing concentrated buying into related stocks.
"As AI infrastructure investment continues, the Korean stock market's uptrend will persist," said Kang Hyun-ki, an analyst at DB Securities. "Signals pointing to leading stocks (including the semiconductor sector) are still intact." He projected that the KOSPI could break above 10,000 points and rise as high as 11,700 points in the second half.
The KOSDAQ was up 2.30 points or 0.21% at 1,077.10. The index turned higher after weakness early in the session. Foreign and institutional investors net bought 272.7 billion won and 9.7 billion won, respectively, while retail investors net sold 283.2 billion won.
Among the top KOSDAQ market-cap stocks, secondary battery names Ecopro BM (247540.KQ) (-1.84%) and Ecopro (086520.KQ) (-1.51%) weakened, while Alteogen (196170.KQ) (+2.85%) and Rainbow Robotics (277810.KQ) (+14.96%) advanced.
