South Korea’s Kospi index jumps more than 16% on a surge of chipmaking stocks

South Korea’s Kospi index has jumped more than 16% as artificial intelligence-related stocks bounced back after losses this week

A currency trader talks on the phone at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Updated 55 minutes ago

BANGKOK (AP) — South Korea’s Kospi index jumped more than 16% on Friday, tracking Wall Street gains, as artificial intelligence-related stocks bounced back after losses this week.

U.S. futures edged higher and oil prices fell.

In early Asian trading, the Kospi rose 16.8% to 6,531.71, recovering from losses earlier in the week. Shares of South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics surged 22.5%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix soared 27.7%.

The Kospi index has been volatile this week in part over worries about an AI bubble and rising competition from chipmaking rivals in China. It had plummeted more than 16% on Tuesday and Wednesday on a sell-off of technology stocks, and fell a further 1.2% on Thursday to below 5,600.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 also climbed 5.2% in early Friday trading to 65,072.42. Multinational investment holding company and OpenAI investor SoftBank Group jumped 15.1%, while chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron rose 10.1%.

Oil prices traded lower early Friday. Brent crude, the international standard, was down 1.1% to $85.92 per barrel.

On Thursday, Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 was up 1.7% to 7,437.63. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.2% to 52,208.06. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 2.8% to 25,122.18.