South Korea Daily Briefing

Korea's 뉴시스 financial desk reports that leading local analysts are calling Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix 'in undervalued territory' despite recent KOSPI gains, with the HBM cycle thesis underpinning the bullish case for both semiconductor names. SK Hynix, the dominant supplier of HBM3E memory to Nvidia's H100 and H200 AI accelerators, has been the stronger performer of the two but still trades at a discount to its through-cycle DRAM revenue potential. Daniel Park's read: the key to breaking out of the current KOSPI trading range for semis is the next Samsung earnings cycle — order books for 2027 HBM supply agreements with US hyperscalers are the data point that could trigger a re-rating that current prices don't reflect.

동아일보 reports that Korean exporters now face 241 separate trade restriction or anti-dumping investigation cases globally, up 11 in the last six months — reflecting accelerating protectionist pressures on Korea's steel, battery, semiconductor, and EV component export sectors. The most exposed Korean sectors are steel (POSCO, Hyundai Steel) and EV battery (LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, SK On), where trade remedies from the US and EU are increasingly targeting Korean manufacturers for alleged dumping and subsidy violations. This is a structural headwind for Korea's export-driven economy: the KOSPI's heavy weighting toward chaebol export names means trade restriction escalation is a direct multiple-compression risk for the index, even on days like today when the broader sentiment is positive.

뉴시스 reports that a survey of Korean cryptocurrency investors found 82.9% believe the capital gains tax on crypto — set to take effect in three months — needs either a delay or substantive revision, continuing years of political tension between crypto-native retail investors and Korea's tax authorities. Korea has the highest retail cryptocurrency participation rate of any major economy, with crypto trading volumes on KRW exchanges frequently exceeding the KOSDAQ by daily notional value. The policy risk is real: a December 2026 implementation without revision could trigger a pre-tax-deadline sell-off in Korean crypto and a retail re-allocation into gold, KOSDAQ growth names, or offshore assets — a KOSDAQ volatility catalyst to track into Q4.