KOSPI Recovers 4,100 Mark... Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix Rally

KOSPI and KOSDAQ Open Higher

Both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ started higher on the 22nd.

As of 9:35 a.m. that day, the KOSPI was at 4,102.33, up 81.87 points (2.03%) from the previous trading day. The KOSPI opened at 4,096.26, up 75.71 points.

Foreign investors and institutions are net buyers of 263.2 billion won and 638.3 billion won, respectively, while individual investors are net sellers of 887.5 billion won.

As the KOSPI recovered above the 4100 level during the session, the status board in the dealing room of Hana Bank in Jung-gu, Seoul, displayed the KOSPI, KRW/USD exchange rate, and KOSDAQ on the 22nd. As of 9:03 a.m. that day, the KOSPI started trading at 4,089.70, up 69.15 points (1.72%) from the previous close, and the gains were widening. December 22, 2025 Photo by Cho Yongjun

In the early session, most of the top market capitalization stocks were in positive territory. LG Energy Solution (up 2.51%), Samsung Biologics (up 0.52%), Samsung Electronics Preferred Shares (up 1.92%), Doosan Enerbility (up 1.68%), and KB Financial Group (up 0.24%) are all rising. On the other hand, Hyundai Heavy Industries (down 0.19%) and Kia (down 0.50%) are declining, while Hyundai Motor is flat.

Notably, semiconductor-related stocks such as Samsung Electronics (up 3.01%) and SK Hynix (up 4.02%) are showing strong gains. This momentum in tech stocks is attributed to last week's news that the Donald Trump administration in the United States has begun considering ways to allow Nvidia's H200 chips to be exported to China.

On December 19 (local time), all three major stock indexes in the New York market closed higher. Nvidia rose 3.93%, Broadcom gained 3.18%, AMD surged 6.15%, and Micron Technology jumped 6.99%.

Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, analyzed, "Unlike the second and third weeks of December, there are no major events scheduled this week, which should reduce market fatigue and the difficulty of responding compared to one or two weeks ago. However, individual factors such as AI, semiconductors, dividend demand, and KOSDAQ activation policies remain, so it is necessary to reflect the premise that sector rotation will drive index resilience in midweek response strategies."

The KOSDAQ is at 925.31, up 10.04 points (1.10%) from the previous trading day.

In this market, individual investors are net buyers of 109.3 billion won worth of stocks, while foreign investors and institutions are net sellers of 25.5 billion won and 12.6 billion won, respectively.

Most of the top KOSDAQ market capitalization stocks are also rising. EcoPro BM (up 2.13%), EcoPro (up 1.55%), Rainbow Robotics (up 1.66%), LIG ChemBio (up 2.39%), and Kolon TissueGene (up 2.54%) are all advancing. In contrast, Alteogen (down 0.56%), ABL Bio (down 0.32%), and HLB (down 0.32%) are declining.

In the Seoul foreign exchange market, the KRW/USD exchange rate is trading at 1,477.2 won per dollar, down 0.8 won (0.05%) from the previous day.