Kospi Surges Past 6,800 as Samsung, SK Hynix and SoftBank Jump Over 3%

TradingKey - KOSPI surges 2.3% to cross 6,800 points, as semiconductors, SoftBank, and Kioxia rally across the board.

On September 18 Asian time, Japanese and South Korean stock markets opened higher and moved higher overall, driven by a rebound in US tech stocks. Among them, the KOSPI Index gapped up by about 2.3%, rising over 150 points to breach the 6,888 mark at the open, and was temporarily trading at 6,868.24 points.

Two core tech chip stocks opened higher and moved higher, surging over 3%. Among them, Samsung Electronics rose 3.07%, breaking above the 260,000 mark to temporarily trade at 260,500 KRW; SK Hynix jumped 3.72%, breaching the 1.8 million mark to temporarily trade at 1,810,000 KRW.

KOSPI Index chart, Source: TradingView

The Nikkei 225 Index opened higher and moved higher, gaining 1.02% to temporarily stand at 64,765.34 points. Both major heavyweight stocks rose over 3%, with SoftBank's stock price rising 3.06% to temporarily trade at 6,438 JPY, while Kioxia rose 3.03% to temporarily trade at 51,390 JPY.

Overnight US stocks saw market risk aversion ease significantly after digesting the Federal Reserve's 25-basis-point rate hike decision. Tech stocks and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) staged a strong rebound, directly injecting robust buying momentum into leading Asian chip and AI supply chain stocks at the open.

In addition, international crude oil prices experienced a notable pullback, with both Brent crude (UKOIL) and WTI crude (USOIL) prices falling below $100 per barrel today, significantly easing corporate production cost pressures in Japan and South Korea, which are highly dependent on energy imports. The decline in crude oil prompted US Treasury yields to pull back from high levels, greatly alleviating market concerns that "high inflation will push up long-term interest rates."