Sunday, September 27, 2026
Sundays wrap up the week.
This week, KOSPI traded for three days and closed above 7,000 ahead of the Chuseok holiday. During the holiday, news broke about HLB's US approval and SK Hynix subsidiary Solidigm's listing review, and over the weekend, reports emerged that President Trump rejected Iran's ceasefire proposal.
SK Hynix Solidigm Listing Review and Samsung Electronics Earnings Outlook Emerge Over the Weekend
Reuters reported that SK Hynix, which acquired NAND subsidiary Solidigm from Intel, held meetings with investment banks this week to select listing underwriters. The company is reportedly valued at up to $150 billion (approximately 204 trillion won) and could raise as much as $15 billion. On Friday, SK Hynix's US depositary receipts rose 2.78%. Samsung Electronics is expected to report preliminary earnings for the third quarter early next month, with analysts predicting operating profit exceeding 100 trillion won for the first time.
KOSPI gains during the week were also driven by semiconductor stocks. On Monday, the Korea Customs Service reported that semiconductor exports from September 1 to 20 totaled $34.1 billion, a 259.4% increase year-on-year. Samsung Electronics rose 4.98%, and KOSPI closed up 1.65% at 7,007.72, marking the first time it exceeded 7,000 since September 10. SK Hynix's US depositary receipts were included in the SOXX exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking the US semiconductor index after two months of listing. On Wednesday, Samsung Electronics rose 3.25% following news that it completed industry-first verification of next-generation mobile DRAM LPDDR6 for Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform. KOSPI closed at 7,080.92, up 2.71% from the previous Friday.
Meta Muse Drives Up Chipmakers and Parts Companies
On Monday, Meta's AI agent Muse topped the App Store charts in the US, leading to a surge in CPU companies. On Tuesday, domestic PCB makers rose as a result. Korea Circuit rose 25.4%, TLBI rose 18.9%, Semtech rose 16.9%, and Daeduck Electronics rose 10.2%. Korea Circuit was also boosted by reports that it had entered SK Hynix's GDDR7 PCB supply chain. Samsung Electro-Mechanics rose 3.99% on the day it announced a rule of thumb that the capacitance required for stacked ceramic capacitors per GPU doubles every year. LG Electronics rose 5.8% on news that it received NVIDIA specification approval for its cooling solution.
During the holiday, Japanese PCB maker Ibiden saw its stock rise by about 18% in two days due to expectations of increased demand for server CPUs. This led to renewed interest in Samsung Electro-Mechanics, which supplies server CPU PCBs. The domestic stocks that rose the most compared to last week were Korea Circuit, LG Electronics, Isu Petasys, and Semtech.
HLB Receives US Approval During Holiday and Begins Trading on the 28th
HLB's US subsidiary Elevate Therapeutics received FDA approval for its targeted cancer drug Lipictu, which treats cholangiocarcinoma with FGFR2 gene fusion or rearrangement. The drug is intended for patients who cannot undergo surgery or have metastatic disease. This marks the first time a domestically developed anticancer drug has received FDA approval.
Jin Yang Gon, chairman of the HLB Group, reflected on the 20-year journey of drug development and said that the first trading after the approval will be on September 28 when the domestic stock market reopens.
Weekend Developments
The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump rejected Iran's proposed seven-day ceasefire and told aides he intends to resume airstrikes against Iran after the November midterm elections. The US has reportedly informed Iran and mediators that it will not end its maritime blockade.
Iran's president expressed his willingness to return to a previous truce agreement, while reports emerged that Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports increased by 80% despite attacks on pipelines. President Trump's approval rating stood at 37% according to a Wall Street Journal poll, the lowest for a president facing midterm elections since 1990.
US Developments This Week
The Nasdaq rose 2.06%, the S&P 500 rose 1.21%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.28% this week. Meta surged 36% since the beginning of September, surpassing SpaceX in market capitalization due to expectations for its AI agent Muse. The yield on US 10-year Treasury notes reached 5.21% during Thursday trading, the highest level since 2007. Oracle's stock fell more than 5% over two days following reports that it issued a force majeure notice regarding its New Mexico data center.
During the three US trading days after the domestic market closed, ETFs tracking the Korean stock market declined by 3.62% and 1.68%, respectively, before rising 2.55% on Friday.
Themes
In Korea, semiconductors were consistently ranked first, and second place was occupied by biopharmaceuticals except for Tuesdays when electronics and components took the spot. In the US, AI semiconductors dominated from Monday to Tuesday, big tech companies led from Wednesday to Friday, and AI semiconductors regained the top position on the weekend.
Data included in this article
Item | Quantity |
|---|
Collection Channels | 320 |
Collected Messages | 22,778 |
Domestic Issue Keywords | 12,554 |
Domestic Theme Aggregation | 26 Themes |
US Theme Aggregation | 16 Themes |
Source: hatzze.fun/kadera
※ The mention volume and aggregation figures only indicate how often something is mentioned and are for entertainment and reference purposes only, not buy or sell signals. This does not verify the truthfulness of rumors.
