Kospi Tops 8,800, Triggers Buy Sidecar; Samsung Electronics Market Cap Exceeds $1.47 Trillion

Samsung Electronics jumps more than 10% intraday; LG shares also rally

South Korea’s Kospi extended its record-setting run on June 1, the first trading day of the month, triggering a buy-side sidecar that suspends program buy orders for five minutes. The benchmark rose as high as 8,874.16 during the session, stoking expectations it could reach 9,000. Samsung Electronics Co., the market heavyweight, surged more than 10% at one point, lifting the market capitalization of its common shares above 2,000 trillion won ($1.47 trillion) for the first time.

As of 11:50 a.m., the Kospi was up 350.85 points, or 4.14%, at 8,827.00 from the previous session. The index had earlier climbed to 8,874.16, extending the record high set in the prior trading day.

At about 11:30:32 a.m., a move in the Kospi 200 futures index triggered a five-minute halt in the validity of program buy orders. At the time, the Kospi 200 futures index was at 1,417.90, up 67.90 points, or 5.02%, from the previous close. It was the first buy-side sidecar on the Kospi since May 27, three trading days earlier.

In the main board market, retail investors were net buyers of 71 billion won and institutions bought a net 2.4477 trillion won of shares. Foreign investors were net sellers of 2.317 trillion won.

The Kospi has continued to set fresh highs as retail and institutional buying gathered pace on expectations for an end to the U.S.-Iran war.

Samsung Electronics was trading at 344,750 won, up 27,750 won, or 8.75%, from the previous session. The stock rose more than 10% earlier in the session. Investors appeared to focus on Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang’s visit to South Korea and news that Samsung had begun shipping samples of HBM4E, the seventh generation of high-bandwidth memory. With the gain, Samsung Electronics’ common-share market capitalization swelled to 2,037.4281 trillion won ($1.47 trillion), surpassing 2,000 trillion won for the first time. Samsung Electronics preferred shares jumped 11.36%. Other Samsung affiliates also advanced, including Samsung Life Insurance Co., up 6.69%, Samsung C&T Corp., up 12.37%, and Samsung SDS Co., up 28.09%.

LG group shares were also strong. LG Electronics Inc. rose 29.86% to the daily limit, while LG Innotek Co. gained 10.63% and holding company LG Corp. climbed 22.65%.

Hanwha Aerospace Co. turned lower in intraday trading, falling 2.47%, after news of an accident. An emergency report was received that an explosion had occurred at Hanwha Aerospace’s Daejeon plant in Oesam-dong, Yuseong-gu.

Lee Su, Hankyung.com reporter 2su@hankyung.com