The South Korean benchmark Kospi rose above the 7,000-point mark during trading Friday for the first time in 15 sessions, buoyed by gains in US technology stocks.
In early trading, the index reached an intraday high of 7,010.86, climbing above the 7,000 threshold for the first time since July 24. It later pared some of its gains, closing its daytime trading just below the mark at 6,977.94, up 2.42 percent from the previous session.
The Kospi's gains came as US technology stocks broadly advanced in the previous session amid easing inflationary pressures and falling oil prices.
In the main bourse, foreign investors were net buyers of stocks amounting to 3.04 trillion won ($2.15 billion); retail and institutional investors were net sellers of 1.98 trillion won and 1.03 trillion won, respectively.
Most of the Kospi's large-cap stocks traded higher. Chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix gained 2.43 percent and 3.26 percent, respectively, while preferred shares of Samsung Electronics surged 4.15 percent and SK Square rose 3.31 percent.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics, recently named Morgan Stanley’s top pick among Korean technology stocks, replacing Samsung Electronics, surged 3.66 percent, following a 12.58 percent gain in the previous session.
Market turmoil in late July sent the Kospi tumbling to the 5,200-point range, but the benchmark has staged a steady rebound this week. Friday's gains tracked broad-based gains in US technology shares.
Memory chipmaker SanDisk surged 13.7 percent after the company said at its Investor Day that it expects revenue to grow in the mid-to-high teens annually from fiscal 2028 to 2030, driven by strong demand stemming from the expansion of AI infrastructure.
Micron Technology and SK hynix's American depositary receipts also rose 4.23 percent and 7.29 percent, respectively.
The secondary bourse Kosdaq closed at 864.65, up 0.38 percent on-session.
By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)
