South Korea’s stock market hit a historic peak on Monday as the total valuation of listed companies surpassed the 6,000 trillion won ($4.1 trillion) mark for the first time during trading hours. The combined market capitalization of domestic exchanges rose to ¥6,031.97 trillion in early deals, according to data cited by the Korea Herald, based on Korea Exchange data. Of this, Kospi made the biggest share with 5,354.36 trillion won, followed by Kosdaq with 673.97 trillion won and Konex with 3.64 trillion won. “The milestone came as the Kospi extended its rally, opening higher and climbing to an intraday record of 6,603.01, surpassing the 6,600 mark for the first time,” the report said. The broader strength in equities was also reflected in the Kosdaq, which rose more than 1 percent. The index had already crossed the 1,200 level last Friday, a threshold it had not crossed in almost 25 years. Heavyweight shares led the rise in the morning session. “As of 10:35 a.m., Samsung Electronics rose 1.25 percent to 222,250 won. SK Hynix rose 5.32 percent to 1,287,000 won, a new all-time high for the semiconductor company,” the report said. Elsewhere in Asia, market performance was uneven, although gains were largely concentrated in technology-heavy regions of North Asia. As of 12:20PM IST, Taiwan’s weighted index was up 1.73 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.18 per cent, supported by a broader bounce in semiconductor and artificial intelligence-related stocks globally. However, sentiment was not uniformly positive across the region. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Singapore’s Straits Times Index were trading 0.25% and 0.57% lower, respectively, as investors eyed ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the resulting uncertainty over global energy supplies.
