South Korea achieved a market cap milestone on Monday as stock values surpassed 6,000 trillion won. The combined market capitalization stood at 6,120.36 trillion won as of 2 p.m. The Korea Exchange provided these figures during the trading session. The main board Kospi accounted for 5,439.87 trillion won of the total. The secondary Kosdaq contributed 678.68 trillion won to the figure.
Combined market cap had surpassed 4,000 trillion won on January 2. It then crossed 5,000 trillion won on April 3 of this year. The figure has nearly tripled since April 9, 2025. On that date, the Kospi hit its year low of 2,293.7 points. Total market value stood at roughly 2,210 trillion won back then.
The Kospi extended its rally to push past 6,600 points on Monday. The index opened 0.9 percent higher at 6,533.6 in the morning. It then hit 6,657.22 during trading for a new all time high. The index stood at 6,627.75 for a 2.35 percent gain as of 2 p.m. Last week, the benchmark posted record highs for three consecutive sessions. It paused briefly on Friday but resumed upward momentum on Monday.
Foreign and institutional investors drove this market cap milestone higher. Foreign investors net purchased shares worth 668.8 billion won. Institutions added 1.25 trillion won to the upward rally. However, retail investors offloaded 1.9 trillion won during the session. Semiconductor heavyweights led the advance across the board. Samsung Electronics rose 2.28 percent to 224,500 won. SK hynix jumped 6.46 percent to 1.3 million won as of 2 p.m. The chipmaker surpassed the 1.3 million won mark for the first time. It surged as high as 1.32 million won during trading.
Analysts attributed the market cap milestone to AI driven growth. Kang Jin hyuk is an analyst at Shinhan Securities. He said the AI value chain has played a key role. Expectations for further gains in the domestic market are rising again. The tech heavy Kosdaq also gained ground on Monday. It rose more than 1 percent after breaking above 1,200 points last Friday. That marked the index’s first return to that level in about 25 years. The Kosdaq had not seen 1,200 points since the dot com bubble in 2000.
The Korean won traded at 1,477.6 per dollar at the opening session. That represented a weakening of 6.9 won from the previous day. However, the currency slightly strengthened to the 1,470 level as of 2 p.m. It tracked gains in the local stock market during trading. Future gains will likely depend on continued AI semiconductor demand. The Kospi may test even higher levels in coming weeks.
