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Fri, 31 Jul 2026

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 South Korean shares soar after chip stock rout

It comes after a three-day rout that wiped hundreds of billions of dollars off the value of the country's stock market.
South Korea's stock market surged on Friday, with the Kospi index rising by almost 18% as chip makers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics led the gains. The bounceback comes after three days of heavy losses that saw hundreds of billions of dollars wiped off the value of the country's stocks. Positive earnings updates from Amazon and Microsoft helped boost optimism in the tech sector, particularly around artificial intelligence (AI). The news also fueled a rally in AI-related stocks, with SK Hynix shares jumping by almost 30% and Samsung rising by 28%. South Korean regulators announced measures to curb this week's sell-off, and similar gains were seen in markets in Japan and Taiwan.