[Anchor]
Reversing yesterday's sharp plunge, the KOSPI rebounded within a single day to recover the 5,600 mark. A wave of optimism swept through the market after US artificial intelligence company Anthropic filed for an initial public offering to list on the Nasdaq. Easing concerns over an AI bubble, major domestic semiconductor stocks surged across the board.
First, we have more from Min Gyeongho.
[Reporter]
The KOSPI broke through the 5,600 threshold right from the open.
It subsequently expanded its gains, briefly reclaiming the 5,700 level, and a buy-side sidecar was triggered in the morning session.
Although individual investors offloaded some shares during the afternoon, the index closed up 3.09% at 5,638.
Foreigners and institutional investors led the advance, net-buying 590 billion won and 280 billion won, respectively, while retail investors net-sold approximately 950 billion won.
Semiconductor heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix spearheaded the stock price rally, climbing 4.23% and 5.18%, respectively.
Analysts attribute the turnaround to news delivered overnight that US AI developer Anthropic filed for an IPO to list on the Nasdaq.
A look at Anthropic's IPO prospectus reveals explosive growth.
In the second quarter of this year, even excluding certain costs, its operating profit margin reached 19%, significantly outpacing the estimated 5%.
Revenue for the period surged over 1,300% year-on-year to approximately 15.3 trillion won in Korean currency, while expenses for renting equipment such as data centers increased by a relatively modest 300%.
This outpaced growth in earnings over spending instilled relief that profits could multiply several times over.
Anthropic is projected to secure a valuation of about 2,600 trillion won in this IPO and raise approximately 130 trillion won, or about 5% of its value, in investment capital.
[Interview / Kim Dong-won / Head of Research, KB Securities: There were significant concerns regarding capital procurement, specifically how this massive investment would be financed. With a successful IPO expected, it has greatly alleviated market worries surrounding AI capital raising.]
Expectations that the capital raised in this manner will ultimately feed back into the performance of our domestic semiconductor companies brought smiles to our stock market today.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
Reported by Kim Se-kyung | Video by Lee Sang-min
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