South Korean stock market rebounds 12%, chip stocks lead the gains

Golden Ten Data reported on March 5 that the Korean stock market rebounded after experiencing its largest single-day decline ever, as bargain-hunting investors returned to the market. In early trading on Thursday, the KOSPI index surged by 12%, marking the biggest single-day gain since October 2008, after closing down by the same margin on Wednesday. Chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both rose by more than 13%. Following the sharp rise, trading on the KOSDAQ and KOSPI markets was programmatically halted for 5 minutes. Mark Preskett, Senior Portfolio Manager at Morningstar Wealth, stated: "Given the strong upward momentum in Korea's stock market at the beginning of 2026 and the country's heavy reliance on energy imports, it is not surprising that the KOSPI index has become the leading decliner among Asian stock markets." He noted that the attractive performance of SK Hynix and Samsung's stock prices will continue to support the KOSPI index.