[Anchor]

The KOSPI, which fell to the 6,800 level on Monday, surged more than 6% today (July 15) to reclaim the 7,000 mark. The recovery in semiconductor investment sentiment has largely washed away the shock of "Black Monday."

First, here is Choi Seung-hun with the report.

[Reporter]

The KOSPI showed strength from the very beginning, with a sidecar for buy orders triggered just six minutes after the market opened.

The buying momentum did not falter in the afternoon, and the index closed at 7,284, up 6.2%.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the top two companies by market capitalization that had been suffering from concerns over a peak in the semiconductor cycle, led the index higher.

SK Hynix surged 8.8% today to surpass the 2 million won mark again, while Samsung Electronics also rose 6.2%.

Foreign investors net bought over 2.3 trillion won, while individual investors sold more than 2.4 trillion won.

The starting point of the surge was the U.S. market overnight.

British investment bank Barclays stated that the shortage of memory semiconductors would continue for several years and set a target price of 330 dollars for SK Hynix ADRs.

As optimism for semiconductors was revived, SK Hynix ADRs skyrocketed by 27%.

[Interview] Choi Jae-won / Professor of Economics, Seoul National University: "The advantage of ADRs is that they play a role in price discovery, showing the overall outlook on the AI market as perceived by U.S. investors. It sent a signal to U.S. investors that 'AI investment remains solid'."

Investment sentiment recovered as the U.S. consumer price inflation rate for June was lower than the previous month, easing the burden of interest rate hikes. Additionally, news that Meta would significantly expand its data center investments, combined with a positive revenue outlook for semiconductor equipment company ASML, contributed to the rally.

The scale of investments by major U.S. big tech companies, such as Alphabet and Meta, which will be announced later this month, remains a key variable.

[Interview] Kim Hak-kyun / Head of Research Center, Shinyoung Securities: "The capital expenditure plans of companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft, which purchase and use semiconductor chips from Korea, will be important."

The won-dollar exchange rate fell to the mid-1,480 won range for the first time in two months, closing at 1,484 won as of 3:30 p.m.

Analysts attribute this to foreign investors' net buying of over 3 trillion won over the past two days, as well as the inflow of semiconductor export proceeds and funds from the issuance of SK Hynix ADRs.

(Video Editing: Jung Yong-hwa, VJ: Jung Han-wook, Design: Kim Ye-ji)