The breathtaking rally in South Korean stocks took gains for 2026 to 100 per cent, eclipsing even the historic run-ups seen before the dotcom bubble burst and during the nation’s industrial boom in the late 1980s.
Supercharged by advances in memory makers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, the benchmark Kospi has shattered record after record — racing from 5,000 to 8,000 in a matter of months. The gauge jumped as much as 5.1 per cent on Wednesday. Less than halfway through the year, the Kospi’s performance now rivals the Nasdaq 100 Index’s 102 per cent surge in 1999 — right before the bubble burst. Still, few market watchers are raising the alarm bells for Korea as they see a structural change in global demand for memory chips — moving from a cyclical pattern to an enduring growth trend.
First Published: May 27 2026 | 10:51 PM IST