South Korea Daily Briefing

Korean media reports that KOSPI has entered the '9,000-point era' with steady monthly gains of approximately 800 points through 2026. The catalyst is foreign investor net buying returning after earlier risk-off flows. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix — KOSPI's two largest constituents — are the primary drivers as HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) cycle demand from NVIDIA and global AI infrastructure capex continues. The chaebol governance discount is still being priced out of KOSPI valuations as FSC/FSS pressure on shareholder returns via dividends and buybacks accelerates. This is a structural, not just cyclical, re-rating.

IEA Secretary General Fatih Birol, speaking in Istanbul, demanded unconditional and immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz following the US-Iran MOU. For Korea, this is a direct macro positive: Korea imports approximately 60% of its crude from the Gulf, making Hormuz closure the single largest cost risk for Korean petrochemical companies (LG Chem, Lotte Chemical) and manufacturing energy costs broadly. Full Hormuz reopening and oil at three-month lows materially reduces imported inflation and supports BoK's space to maintain an accommodative rate stance through Q3.

Korean derivatives market data shows that single-stock futures volume has surpassed index futures for the first time, a structural sign of Korea's maturing equity derivatives market and increasing stock-level conviction trading. For institutional investors, this creates better hedging granularity around individual chaebol positions — Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Hyundai Motors — without needing to hedge the full KOSPI. For the KOSDAQ, it signals that retail and professional traders are increasingly expressing views on individual tech and battery names rather than broad index instruments.