South Korean shares hit all-time high as ‘ants’ join global rush to buy AI stocks

[SEOUL] South Korean stocks sprinted to record highs on Monday (MAy 11) as legions of retail “ant” investors swarmed into chipmakers, riding a fresh wave of artificial intelligence-fuelled optimism sparked by a rally in US peers and upbeat data.

Heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the charge, rising 6.3 per cent and 11.5 per cent, respectively, with both chipmakers hitting life-time peaks.

The rally highlights how surging global demand for AI hardware is now the dominant force in equity markets, propelling South Korea’s chip-heavy benchmark into the ranks of the world’s top-performing major indices.

Samsung, ⁠the world’s top memory ​chipmaker, last week became only the second Asian company after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to crack the ⁠trillion-US dollar club, cementing South Korea’s place as a key benchmark of the AI trade.

The benchmark Kospi closed up 324.24 points, or 4.32 per cent, at 7,822.24, after earlier tripping a “sidecar” trading curb having jumped 5.35 per cent to a record high of 7,899.32.

The index, which rose 13.6 per cent last week in its biggest weekly jump since late 2008, looks set to break 8,000 less than a week after topping the 7,000 mark for the first time.

The outsized gains make South Korea the best performing major market this year with an 86 per cent surge so far on top of a 76 per cent rally in 2025, buoyed by an AI-driven 150 per cent surge in chip exports in the first 10 days of May alone.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 5.5 per cent on Friday, as chipmaker Micron Technology surged 15.5 per cent, while Apple and Intel also rallied on a report of their deal on chip production.

In the currency market, the won was fetching 1,472.4 per US dollar, 0.69 per cent lower than its previous close at 1,462.3.

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Ants lead rally

Retail investors spearheaded Monday’s rally in the Kospi, which outpaced Japan’s Nikkei and stocks in China and Taiwan. They net bought shares worth 2.9 trillion won (S$2.5 billion), while foreigners were net sellers of 3.5 trillion won.

“There is profit-taking pressure rising among all investor groups, so it is necessary to note that short-term volatility can grow in semiconductor stocks as the Kospi extends gains this week,” said Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) warned retail investors against chasing short-term gains, urging a reassessment of risks behind a sector-led rally at a rare briefing on Monday.

“The FSS is closely monitoring the trend of leveraged stock investments and risk management by securities brokerages and will take pre-emptive measures if needed to ensure market stability,” it said in a statement.

Retail investors’ borrowed investments in Kospi shares stood at 24.9 trillion won as of Friday, just short of a record 25.0 trillion won hit in late April.

They have bought 7.5 trillion won of Kospi shares so far this month, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix accounting for 3.7 trillion won.

So far this year, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have risen more than 120 per cent and 160 per cent, respectively, compared with a 15 per cent rise in US chipmaker Nvidia and a 44 per cent rise in Taiwan’s TSMC. On Monday, of the total 897 traded issues, 147 shares advanced, while 738 declined.

JPMorgan Chase raised its targets for South Korean stocks for the second time in less than a month, citing improvement in the semiconductor cycle, corporate governance reforms and industrial-sector growth. The Wall Street bank lifted its base target for the Kospi to 9,000 and its bull-case target to 10,000, implying a 33 per cent upside from Friday’s close. That compares with base and bull targets of 7,000 and 8,500 set in late April. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG