Two major positive surprises: South Korea's market stabilization, A-share ETF reappears with heavy buying
[Two major positive surprises: South Korea's stable market A-share ETF reappears with large-scale buying] The Asia-Pacific market in the afternoon ushered in a wave of gains! So, what exactly happened? Analysts believe that two pieces of good news have stimulated this rise.
The Asia-Pacific market experienced a surge in the afternoon! After the A-share market opened on the afternoon of July 14, South Korea's KOSPI index staged a "deep V" rebound and continued to rise, once rising by more than 1%. It had previously fallen by more than 5%, and Samsung Electronics rose by more than 4%. The Japanese stock index also turned higher, with the A50 rising straight up, and external US stock futures indexes also turned red. So, what exactly happened? Analysts believe that two pieces of good news have stimulated this rise: first, the stabilization of the Korean market, and second, the reappearance of large-scale buying of A-share ETFs. In the afternoon today, South Korea's KOSPI index rose again by more than 1% during the day, SK Hynix rose by more than 3%, and Samsung Electronics once rose by 4%. Drive the entire Asia-Pacific market to strengthen. As of the close, the Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.74% at 67743.50 points; South Korea's KOSPI index closed up 0.73% at 6856.83 points. FTSE China A50 Index futures rose by 2%. The ChiNext Index rose by more than 3%, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Component Index rose by more than 2%, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange Index rose by more than 1%. Computing hardware, medicine, oil and gas led the gains, and more than 4,000 stocks rose in the Shanghai, Shenzhen and North stock markets. The market in Hong Kong, China has also recovered. Judging from the structure of market linkage, the actions of the Korean government may be the main reason. According to local media reports, on July 16, the high-level coordination mechanism of the Ministry of Finance and Economics, the Financial Commission, the Bank of Korea, and the Financial Supervisory Service will hold a meeting to study response plans for the impact of single-stock leveraged ETFs on the stock market. This is the first time that this issue has officially entered the mechanism for discussion. In addition, the South Korean government plans to relax foreign exchange management regulations related to capital transactions in the second half of this year as part of an overall strategy to promote the internationalization of the Korean won and expand the scope of the Korean won's overseas use. The South Korean government released the "Economic Policy Direction for the Second Half of 2026" on Tuesday, proposing that it will increase market demand for the Korean won by providing incentives for current account transactions settled in Korean won and expanding channels for foreign investors to invest in Korean won-denominated financial products. In terms of capital supply, the government will relax borrowing restrictions on foreign financial institutions so that they can more easily obtain Korean won liquidity for securities settlement. At the same time, the Korean government also plans to promote Korean won-denominated trade financing through currency swap funds to encourage the Korean won to be used more in international trade and financial transactions. The South Korean government also stated that it will strengthen 24-hour market monitoring and response mechanisms to respond to market fluctuations and continue to communicate with foreign investors. In addition, the government promised to formulate a plan to further deepen the Korean won's deliverable foreign exchange market in the second half of the year and improve the convenience of overseas market participants to obtain and use the Korean won. South Korea's Finance Ministry also said on Tuesday that South Korea's currency market conditions were improving as major chip and shipbuilding companies began selling large amounts of dollars in the forward market. "Based on strong fundamentals such as a record trade surplus, the foreign exchange market is expected to see structural changes in supply and demand conditions in the second half of the year," the ministry said in a statement. The South Korean won rose 0.75% to 1,486.30 against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, hitting its highest level since May 12. Has the adjustment been completed? The Korean stock index has fallen sharply in this round, with the maximum drop of nearly 3,000 points, and the maximum drop of nearly 30%. The starting point for its adjustment is the popularity of the storage cycle peak theory in the market. So, has storage reached its end? Today, HSBC analysts said in a research note that it may be premature to worry about a peak in the storage cycle. Analysts believe that the storage super cycle is likely to continue as intelligent AI improves office productivity and reshapes work processes. Improving AI service margins continue to support strong cloud spending, and hyperscale cloud service providers are unlikely to slow down the pace of computing power expansion as they compete for a fast-growing market. As the next generation of high-bandwidth memory HBM4 is gradually introduced into the market, the price increase trend of HBM products is expected to continue. Given SK Hynix's greater exposure to HBM, HSBC prefers SK Hynix among Korean technology stocks. HSBC predicts that after HBM4 achieves large-scale application in 2027, SK hynix's share of the HBM market is expected to remain at 50%-55%.
In addition, on July 13, the Bank of Korea issued a report stating that the global semiconductor market is still in short supply and the current super cycle driven by artificial intelligence is expected to continue for some time, trying to dispel investors' concerns that the chip cycle has peaked. The Bank of Korea stated in the report that investment in AI infrastructure has significantly boosted semiconductor demand, but the pace of supply expansion is still slow, so the semiconductor industry cycle has not yet shown signs of slowing down. Moreover, this chip cycle is different from the past. The driving force is the competition of investment by major companies. These investments are based on the expectation that the popularization of AI will trigger fundamental changes in the industrial ecosystem. From the perspective of A-shares, data from Industrial Securities Metals showed that on July 13, there was a large net inflow of the core ETFs of the three major indexes. Among them, the CSI 300 ETF inflow was 8.493 billion yuan; the CSI 500 ETF had an inflow of 7.352 billion yuan; the CSI 1000 ETF increased significantly by 11.923 billion yuan. This may mean that the current point is also a point recognized by big funds. (
In addition, on July 13, the Bank of Korea issued a report stating that the global semiconductor market is still in short supply and the current super cycle driven by artificial intelligence is expected to continue for some time, trying to dispel investors' concerns that the chip cycle has peaked. The Bank of Korea stated in the report that investment in AI infrastructure has significantly boosted semiconductor demand, but the pace of supply expansion is still slow, so the semiconductor industry cycle has not yet shown signs of slowing down. Moreover, this chip cycle is different from the past. The driving force is the competition of investment by major companies. These investments are based on the expectation that the popularization of AI will trigger fundamental changes in the industrial ecosystem. From the perspective of A-shares, data from Industrial Securities Metals showed that on July 13, there was a large net inflow of the core ETFs of the three major indexes. Among them, the CSI 300 ETF inflow was 8.493 billion yuan; the CSI 500 ETF had an inflow of 7.352 billion yuan; the CSI 1000 ETF increased significantly by 11.923 billion yuan. This may mean that the current point is also a point recognized by big funds. (