Seoul skyline.
Mongkol Joo Won | Moment | Getty Images
South Korea’s Kospi hit a record high on Thursday as the region followed Wall Street’s gains and several Asian stock exchanges resumed trading after the Lunar New Year holiday.
The Kospi index rose more than 3% to a new all-time high, closing at 5,677.25. Leading companies in the index, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, rose 4.86% and 1.59%, respectively. The Korean won fell by about 0.2%, trading at around 1,446.3 won against the dollar.
Former South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday after a court found him guilty of leading a rebellion in a failed attempt to declare martial law in December 2024.
“South Korea will once again be the leading market in Asia-Pacific, having nearly doubled in 2025,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a recent note. “After such a strong performance, many investors are asking whether they should reduce their positions, but we think it is still too early.”
The investment bank predicts that South Korean stock market profits will increase by 120% in 2026, after increasing by 36% in 2025.
The small-cap Kosdaq rose nearly 5% to close at 1,160.71.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.88% to close at 9,086.2.
Japanese Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.57% to 57,467.83, and TOPIX rose 1.18% to 3,852.09.
Markets in Hong Kong and mainland China remain closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Overnight in the US, the S&P 500 index rose, supported by gains in major technology stocks, as traders considered the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting.
The Composite Index rose 0.56% to end at 6,881.31, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.78% to settle at 22,753.63. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.26% to close at $49,662.66.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Goldman’s forecast is for the Korean company’s earnings growth.
