Kospi Jumps 5% on Foreign Buying, Retakes 7,000 as Robot Stocks Surge

South Korea’s Kospi rose more than 5% on foreign buying, reclaiming the 7,000 level.

As of 11:49 a.m. on July 22, the benchmark index was up 343.55 points, or 5.09%, at 7,091.50.

The Kospi moved back above 7,000 at the open. At about 9:06 a.m., a buy-side sidecar was triggered, temporarily suspending program buy orders.

Foreign investors were net buyers of 2.6519 trillion won worth of stocks on the benchmark market, helping drive the index higher. They were also buying 522.9 billion won of Kospi 200 futures.

Retail and institutional investors, by contrast, were selling 2.3353 trillion won and 287.7 billion won of shares, respectively.

All of the largest stocks by market capitalization were trading higher.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix rose 5.21% and 6.97%, respectively. SK Hynix also briefly topped 2 million won during the session. The gains followed overnight bargain buying in semiconductor shares on Wall Street, where Micron Technology and SK Hynix ADRs rose 12.04% and 13.74%, respectively.

SK Square climbed 4.47%, Samsung Life Insurance added 4.43%, and Samsung C&T advanced 7.57%.

Hyundai Motor gained 6.64%.

The Kosdaq rose 17.34 points, or 2.30%, to 770.68. On that market, retail investors were net buyers of 275 billion won of shares, while foreign and institutional investors sold 163.8 billion won and 109.8 billion won, respectively.

Most of the Kosdaq’s largest stocks were also higher.

Rainbow Robotics surged 21.39%. Robot-related shares across the Kosdaq also jumped after Samsung Electronics said it would establish a Robotics Experience business promotion office directly under Roh Tae-moon, chief executive officer and head of the Device eXperience division.

EcoPro BM and EcoPro rose 4.25% and 5.32%, respectively.

In Seoul’s foreign-exchange market, the won traded at 1,480 per dollar, down 2 won, or 0.13%, from the previous session.

Han Kyung-woo, Hankyung.com reporter case@hankyung.com