KB News Desk
SK hynix shares hit their daily upper limit Friday, as South Korean chipmakers extended a sharp rebound following a recent market rout.
The stock surged 29.95 percent to 1,718,000 won ($1,203) in afternoon trading on the Kospi, briefly touching the 30 percent ceiling after opening 28.37 percent higher.
South Korea limits daily stock-price movements to 30 percent in either direction, a threshold the Korea Exchange raised from 15 percent in June 2015.
The rally came a day after SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won disclosed his first direct purchase of the chipmaker’s shares. Chey bought 3,620 shares on the open market, worth about 4.79 billion won based on Thursday’s closing price.
Samsung Electronics also jumped 25.6 percent to 260,000 won, while the broader market surge triggered buy-side trading curbs on both the Kospi and Kosdaq shortly after the opening bell.
The rebound followed heavy selling in recent sessions despite record earnings at the country’s two largest memory-chip makers, as investors locked in profits and reassessed whether the AI-driven memory cycle was nearing a peak.
Sentiment improved after Microsoft reported better-than-expected results Thursday, easing concerns over the durability of artificial intelligence infrastructure spending and reviving demand for Korean memory-chip stocks.
