South Korea's Composite Stock Price Index closed up 6.2%, chip stocks resumed their gains
South Korea's Kospi rose for a second consecutive trading day; chip stocks resumed gains. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) closed up 6.2% at 7,284.41 points. Asian emerging stock markets rose on Wednesday as U.S. inflation unexpectedly slowed, reducing expectations that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates in the near term. Among them, driven by chip stocks such as SK Hynix, the Korean stock market once rose by more than 8%. During the session, the Korean Exchange activated the SIDECAR mechanism and suspended KOSPI programmatic buying for 5 minutes. The rebound in the KOSPI index comes after weeks of intense volatility in chip stocks, as investors have been digesting concerns about slowing profit growth, the spending prospects of hyperscalers, and production capacity expansion plans. The market is worried that as new production capacity is gradually opened, tight memory supply may eventually be alleviated. SK Hynix closed up 9.36% on Wednesday and once soared 13% during the session, mainly driven by gains in U.S. technology stocks after overnight U.S. inflation data was lower than expected. In addition, analysts' optimistic expectations for the outlook for artificial intelligence (AI) memory demand also supported market sentiment.