South Korea Overtakes India as World’s No. 6 Stock Market After 86% Kospi Surge

Kospi up 86% this year

South Korea’s stock market has overtaken India to become the world’s sixth-largest by market capitalization after the Kospi surged 86% this year, led by Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. riding an artificial intelligence memory-chip supercycle.

Bloomberg reported that as of June 1, the market capitalization of South Korea’s benchmark stock market had climbed 86% this year to $5.042 trillion, surpassing India’s $4.843 trillion. India’s market capitalization has fallen nearly 9% so far this year.

Bloomberg said its market-cap calculations are based on all free-floating shares and exclude exchange-traded funds and American depositary receipts.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, buoyed by their dominance in the AI memory-chip market, both entered the $1 trillion market-cap club this year and helped drive the Kospi index up more than 100%.

South Korea’s stock market has also overtaken Canada, Germany, the U.K. and France this year. The only larger equity markets now are the U.S. at $79.47 trillion, mainland China at $15.09 trillion, Japan at $8.63 trillion, Hong Kong at $7.24 trillion and Taiwan at $5.15 trillion.

“The memory cycle has been driving the rally,” Ross McGeary, a senior analyst at U.K.-based global asset manager Asset Value Investors, said. “The real test is whether South Korea can sustain this re-rating through meaningful corporate-governance reform.”

India’s stock market, by contrast, is under pressure from a weaker rupee, foreign fund outflows and a lack of technology companies directly tied to AI infrastructure.

International Monetary Fund estimates put South Korea’s gross domestic product at $1.93 trillion, far below India’s $4.15 trillion.

Go Jeong-sam, Hankyung.com reporter, jsk@hankyung.com