Japan and South Korea Stocks Open Higher, Kospi Rises Over 4% to Break 7,800. Program Trading Briefly Suspended

TradingKey - On Monday, May 11, Asia-Pacific equity markets continued their AI-driven rally. South Korea's KOSPI opened 3.7% higher, with intraday gains expanding to 4.2%, breaching the 7,800-point psychological level for the first time.

Tech heavyweights surged collectively, with Samsung Electronics rising over 6% in intraday trading and SK Hynix recording a gain of more than 10%; both stocks hit record highs.

The Nikkei 225 index similarly opened 0.7% higher, with intraday gains widening to 1% as of press time.

The Korea Exchange activated a circuit breaker for the KOSPI after KOSPI 200 futures surged 5%, pausing program trading for five minutes. Since the start of 2026, the KOSPI 200 and its futures have triggered circuit breakers multiple times due to intense two-way volatility.

Global investment bank Goldman Sachs ( GS) previously maintained its "top conviction" investment rating for South Korean equities in its latest research report and significantly raised the 12-month target for the KOSPI from 8,000 to 9,000 points.

The report pointed out that the surge in memory chip demand driven by the AI wave is the core driver, with the South Korean semiconductor industry, led by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, becoming a vital link in the global AI supply chain. The bank forecasts that, led by the hardware and semiconductor sectors, overall corporate profits in South Korea will achieve a 300% year-on-year growth in 2026.

At the same time, U.S. President Trump posted on social media on the 10th that the response from Iran was "completely unacceptable," adding new uncertainty to U.S.-Iran relations that had just begun to show signs of thawing. The central disagreement in U.S.-Iran negotiations remains focused on the disposal of nuclear facilities, with Iran proposing to transfer some of its highly enriched uranium stockpiles to a third country while refusing to permanently dismantle the facilities.