South Korea's KOSPI closed at 7,812.49 on May 21, rising 8.37% in a session steep enough to trigger a buy-side circuit breaker. Samsung Electronics' resolution of a months-long performance-bonus dispute and Nvidia's better-than-expected Q1 FY2027 results catalyzed the rally simultaneously, reversing five consecutive sessions of losses that began with a sell-circuit near the 8,000 level on May 15.
South Korea's KOSPI closed at a record 7,981.41 on May 14, its second consecutive all-time high, bringing the 8,000-point threshold within 0.24%. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the rally as Nvidia's H200 China export authorization spotlighted Korean HBM suppliers as direct beneficiaries; the National Pension Service added roughly ₩50 trillion (~$36 billion) in two weeks.
South Korea's KOSPI closed at a record 7,822.24 on May 11, adding 324 points (+4.32%) as semiconductor stocks repriced after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surged 5.51% on May 8. SK Hynix cleared 190,000 KRW (+11%) and Samsung Electronics crossed 280,000 KRW (+6%), putting the 8,000 level within 2.2% reach.
South Korea's KOSPI touched a record 7,531.88 on Thursday before closing up 1.43% at 7,490.05. The rally pushed Korea's total market cap to $4.59 trillion, surpassing Canada to become the world's seventh-largest equity market, just ten days after overtaking the UK.
SK Hynix (000660.KS) reported Q1 revenue of KRW 52.5763T, operating profit of KRW 37.6103T and a 72% operating margin as AI memory demand lifted pricing.
The Hacker News discussion around Qatar’s helium outage focused on a physical bottleneck beneath the AI stack. Tom’s Hardware says the shutdown removes about 30% of global helium supply, while South Korea and Taiwan monitor possible semiconductor impacts.