KOSPI ticks off 5,400 and 5,500 in a single day… ‘KRW 180,000 Samsung Electronics’ within sight

Micron: “DRAM inventories are extremely tight”

NAND and other prices seen up 30% in Q1

Samsung Electronics up 6%, Hynix up 3%

With the Lunar New Year holiday just two days away, the KOSPI index broke through 5,500 for the first time ever. Samsung Electronics shares surged more than 6%, leading the benchmark higher.

On the 12th, the KOSPI finished up 3.13% at 5,522.27, marking a new all-time high on a closing basis. It has risen for four straight sessions since the 9th. After opening at 5,425.39, up 1.32% from the previous day, the index consecutively cleared the 5,400 and 5,500 levels for the first time in history.

Foreigners and institutions were net buyers of KRW 3.053 trillion and KRW 1.169 trillion, respectively. Retail investors were net sellers of KRW 4.294 trillion.

The rally was led by semiconductor heavyweights. Samsung Electronics jumped 6.44% to close at KRW 178,600. It rose as high as KRW 179,600 intraday, edging close to the “KRW 180,000 Samsung Electronics” mark. SK hynix also gained 3.26% to end at KRW 888,000. Hanmi Semiconductor (9.97%) and FADU (11.45%) also posted sharp gains.

Market sentiment, which had briefly cooled amid renewed talk of an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble and concerns over monetary policy under Kevin Warsh, the nominee for U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) chair, is seen as having shifted. As investors’ focus returned to earnings, the advance in leadership stocks resumed.

Analysts say that Micron’s conference call—held to quell controversy over its alleged exclusion from supplying sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) to Nvidia—helped revive investor appetite for chip stocks after the company again flagged a “DRAM shortage.” Micron CFO Mark Murphy said, “Some customers are receiving only 50–66% of the volumes they are requesting,” adding, “inventories are extremely tight.” Lee Jong-wook, an analyst at Samsung Securities, said, “The stock market cheered as Micron officially pointed to rising DRAM prices and the resulting strong earnings.”

Morgan Stanley also sharply raised its price target on Micron to $450 from $350, citing the memory-chip supply squeeze. The firm estimates that as sales at major AI accelerator makers such as Nvidia and AMD surge, the additional annual demand that memory-chip companies must meet amounts to $200 billion per year.

Spot prices for DDR5 have risen 30% since the start of the year, standing 130% above contract prices. Morgan Stanley said, “Average prices for DRAM and NAND in Q1 are expected to be about 30% higher quarter-on-quarter,” stressing that “wafer starts are likely to rise only 7% by the end of next year, making it difficult to resolve the supply shortage in the short term.”

Late in the session, Samsung Electronics’ share gains widened further after the company announced it had become the first in the world to begin mass-production shipments of HBM4. Park Yu-ak, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said, “With NAND prices likely to rise further and the non-memory division expected to return to profitability, Samsung Electronics shares should remain strong for the time being.”

Reporter Shim Seong-mi smshim@hankyung.com