Kospi Rises 0.97% as AI Spending Optimism Offsets CXMT Listing Pressure

The Kospi snapped back after a one-day slide on July 27 as optimism over expanding global artificial intelligence investment offset pressure from the Shanghai listing of Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT. The benchmark briefly turned negative on foreign selling during the session, but buying by retail and institutional investors lifted it back into positive territory by the close.

The Kospi closed 0.97% higher at 6,755.75. The index had plunged 5.72% on July 24, then staged a modest rebound a session later. It opened up 1.73% and briefly topped 6,800 soon after the market opened. Gains gradually faded on net foreign selling, pushing the index into negative territory at around 10:10 a.m. After 2 p.m., however, the benchmark turned higher again, with retail-led buying expanding the gain to nearly 1%.

Investor sentiment had already been dented by a sharp drop in semiconductor stocks on Wall Street at the end of last week. Against that backdrop, CXMT's Shanghai debut was seen as widening the gap in foreign demand. The company listed on the STAR Market, the Shanghai exchange's technology-focused board, and opened at 49.50 yuan a share, up 471.6% from its initial public offering price of 8.66 yuan.

The first-day surge quickly made CXMT one of the dominant stocks in China's market. As it attracted global capital, South Korea's stock market, particularly semiconductor shares, appeared to face a funding shock.

Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said CXMT was up 535% from its IPO price by the end of morning trading after listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market. The company also fueled expectations by laying out a plan to more than double production capacity by 2030. Nomura gave the stock a positive assessment as well, setting a target price of 116 yuan based on a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.

Domestic semiconductor stocks, however, underperformed because of volatility in fund flows tied to the CXMT listing, Lee said.

The market also drew support from announcements made over the weekend at the San Francisco AI Summit, where South Korean companies unveiled large-scale investments and partnerships with global technology firms. SK Group began AI infrastructure cooperation with Nvidia worth more than $500 billion. Samsung Electronics signed an AI partnership with Broadcom valued at as much as $200 billion. Naver is also pursuing $10 billion in investment and infrastructure financing with Nvidia and Brookfield as it steps up its push into the AI infrastructure market.

Solid AI spending and expanding cooperation with global companies created upward pressure for related sectors, Lee said. Even so, the CXMT listing capped gains in domestic AI and semiconductor shares.

Naver surged more than 8% after reports that Nvidia would participate in a $1 billion third-party allotment share sale by the company. Once the capital increase is completed, Nvidia will hold about a 4.5% stake in Naver, making it the company's third-largest shareholder after the National Pension Service and BlackRock.

The Kosdaq index closed 2.22% higher at 764.86, recovering from the previous day's sharp decline. The won-dollar exchange rate ended daytime trading at 1,468.5 won per dollar, up 1.9 won.

Kang Kyung-ju, Hankyung.com reporter qurasoha@hankyung.com