KOSPI Rises Early Amid US Stock Market Rally... Gaming Stocks Surge

Boosted by the rise in the U.S. stock market, the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indices are showing an upward trend in the early trading session.

At 9:15 a.m. on the 21st, the KOSPI stood at 2395.37, up 0.68% (16.17 points) from the previous trading day. The KOSPI opened at 2396.54, up 0.73% (17.34 points) from the previous day, and is maintaining its upward momentum. In the market, individual and institutional investors bought stocks worth 29.3 billion KRW and 5.1 billion KRW respectively, while foreigners sold stocks worth 34.4 billion KRW.

Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, explained, “Although the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) caution remains, the crisis triggered by Credit Suisse (CS) has been resolved for now, and concerns over U.S. small and medium-sized banks have eased, which will support an upward trend. While there is a possibility that various issues related to banking crises may arise from time to time, it is important to note the strong crisis response commitment of major central banks.”

Looking at the top market capitalization stocks, battery-related stocks such as LG Energy Solution (1.84%), Samsung SDI (1.54%), and LG Chem (0.73%) showed notable gains. In addition, most stocks including Samsung Electronics (0.33%), Hyundai Motor (0.63%), Kia (1.41%), and Kakao (0.56%) also showed an upward trend.

At the same time, the KOSDAQ index stood at 806.88, up 0.58% (4.68 points) from the previous trading day. The index opened at 806.51, up 0.54% (4.31 points) from the previous day. In the market, foreigners and institutions sold stocks worth 108.6 billion KRW and 5.6 billion KRW respectively, while individuals alone bought stocks worth 119.6 billion KRW.

By sector, the digital content index, which includes gaming stocks, showed an increase of over 3%. The previous day, China’s issuance of foreign investment licenses for domestic games such as Devsisters’ “Cookie Run: Kingdom,” Nexon Games’ “Blue Archive,” and Nexon’s “MapleStory H5” acted as a positive factor. Devsisters’ stock rose more than 24% during the session, while Nexon Games (18%), T3 (11%), Longtu Korea (8%), JoyCity (6%), and Dragonfly (4%) also continued their upward trend.

Among the top market capitalization stocks, Celltrion Healthcare (0.3%), L&F (2.9%), HLB (2.71%), Celltrion Pharm (0.73%), Kakao Games (1.63%), Pearl Abyss (2.22%), and SM (0.71%) showed gains. EcoPro BM (-1.47%) and EcoPro (-0.87%), which are under suspicion of unfair stock trading by current and former executives, recorded declines.