"Foreign investors and institutions buy trillions of won in stocks"... KOSPI retakes 6,000 as Samsung Electronics, SK hynix surge

Returns to the 6,000 level after 10 trading days
Samsung Electronics up 8%; SK hynix gains more than 10%

The KOSPI and KOSDAQ indexes and the won-dollar exchange rate are displayed on a screen in the dealing room at Hana Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Oct. 28, as the KOSPI continued its upward run after topping 6,000 intraday. 2026.10.28 Photo by Cho Yongjun

The KOSPI rose past the 6,000 mark again on Oct. 28 as shares of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix surged.

As of 1:26 p.m. that day, the KOSPI was up 6.49% from the previous day at 6,003.59. It had reached the 6,000 level on Oct. 14, after about 10 trading days. The index has continued to rise since opening at 5,763.85, up 2.23% from the previous day.

The gain is attributed to a rally in technology stocks on U.S. markets the previous day, fueled by news that Anthropic was pursuing an initial public offering (IPO) and that Broadcom was raising a large amount of capital. This appears to have eased some concerns about the sustainability of investment in artificial intelligence (AI).

Foreign investors and institutions are both recording net purchases worth more than 1 trillion won. Foreign investors are net buyers of 1.0709 trillion won, while institutions are net buyers of 1.1444 trillion won. Individual investors are net sellers of 2.1997 trillion won.

Nearly all sectors are higher. The biggest gains were in electrical and electronics (8.34%), manufacturing (6.92%), insurance (6.69%), securities (6.01%), financials (5.02%), retail (4.87%), machinery and equipment (4.77%), medical and precision instruments (4.46%), and telecommunications (4.37%), in that order.

Most of the top 10 stocks by market capitalization are up. SK hynix (10.0%) and Samsung Electronics (8.5%) posted particularly strong gains. Their announcements of third-quarter results and shareholder return plans are thought to have boosted investor sentiment. Samsung Life Insurance (9.4%), Samsung C&T (8.4%), and Samsung Electro-Mechanics (8.4%) also advanced. KB Financial Group (4.3%), Hyundai Motor (2.5%), and LG Energy Solution (1.0%) were also higher. Samsung Biologics was the only one down, falling 0.4%.

At the same time, the KOSDAQ was up 3.19% from the previous day at 767.59. It opened at 756.90, up 1.76% from the previous day, and at one point extended its gain to nearly 4%.

Unlike on the KOSPI, foreign investors were net sellers of 157.4 billion won. Individual investors and institutions, meanwhile, were net buyers of 34.2 billion won and 127.5 billion won, respectively.

All sectors also rose on the KOSDAQ. The biggest gains were in machinery and equipment (5.50%), electrical and electronics (3.75%), manufacturing (3.44%), retail (3.34%), chemicals (3.29%), and IT services (3.25%), in that order.

All of the top 10 stocks by market capitalization were higher. Rainbow Robotics surged 13.8%. Semiconductor-related stocks followed, including Simtek (7.0%), Wonik IPS (5.3%), EO Technics (4.5%), and Jusung Engineering (4.0%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.