South Korean stocks staged a powerful rebound on July 3, with the benchmark Kospi surging 5.76% after investors rushed to snap up battered semiconductor shares following the previous session’s heavy sell-off.
The index jumped 440.25 points to close at 8,088.34, recovering from its 7.89% plunge on July 2, while a buy-side sidecar was briefly triggered during the session after the Kospi 200 Futures Index climbed more than 5%, underscoring the strength of the rally.
Semiconductor heavyweights led the recovery, with Samsung Electronics soaring 8.22% to 309,500 won and SK hynix surging 10.88% to 2.42 million won after both suffered steep losses a day earlier.
The rebound was fuelled by bargain hunting and reports that artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic is in talks with Samsung Electronics to develop a custom AI chip.
Institutional investors were aggressive buyers, snapping up a net 4.46 trillion won worth of shares, offsetting net selling by foreign and retail investors.
