KOSPI stiger 3% etter fornyet AI-optimisme – Goldman fastholder 12,000-mål

Sør-Koreas KOSPI surged about 3% mandag og ledet oppgangen i Asia, ettersom investorer strømmet tilbake til halvlederaksjer på fornyet optimisme om etterspørsel knyttet til kunstig intelligens.

KOSPI opened 3.34% higher at 6,910.78 and was up 2.97% at 6,886.09 by late morning in Seoul.

Samsung Electronics gained 4.91% and SK Hynix jumped 8.4%, mens utenlandske og institusjonelle investorer igjen var nette kjøpere.

Rallyet kom til tross for sterkere amerikanske jobbtall, stigende oljepriser og vedvarende forventninger om at Federal Reserve fortsatt kan heve renten denne måneden.

Halvlederaksjer fører KOSPI tilbake i tet

KOSPIs rebound was driven overwhelmingly by technology. The PHLX Semiconductor Index rose 3.38% on Friday after OpenAI unveiled GPT-6 Astra, helping revive expectations for another leg of AI-related memory demand.

Denne drivkraften fortsatte i Seoul, hvor SK Square rose 5.67% og Hanmi Semiconductor gained 5.43%.

Seoul Economic Daily reported that foreigners and institutions together bought about 768.4 billion won of shares early in the session, while retail investors sold about 812.2 billion won. Buying was concentrated in large-cap chipmakers.

Det positive bildet forsterkes også av tilbudsutsiktene.

KB Securities expects memory inventories at Samsung and SK Hynix to remain tight and sees next year’s DRAM and NAND demand exceeding supply by more than 10 percentage points, according to Seoul Economic Daily.

Mirae Asset has raised its Samsung target to 400,000 won and its SK Hynix target to 3.1 million won.

Goldman’s 12,000 target raises the stakes

Rallyet vekket også ny oppmerksomhet rundt en av Wall Streets dristigste spådommer for koreanske aksjer.

Goldman Sachs Asia-Pacific equity strategist Timothy Moe is sticking with a 12-month KOSPI target of 12,000, implying close to 80% upside from current levels.

Moe mener at investorer undervurderer hvor lenge den AI-drevne minnesyklusen kan vare og hvor mye inntjeningsgearing det skaper for koreanske halvlederprodusenter.

Goldman ser indeksen handle til omtrent 5.3 times forward earnings, well below the valuation embedded in its target.

Across Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose 2.2%, Chinese blue chips added 0.2% and MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index outside Japan climbed 1.1%.

European futures were softer, with EURO STOXX 50, DAX and FTSE contracts all down about 0.1%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were fractionally lower during the US holiday.

Oil and rate risks still cap the upside

Det makroøkonomiske bakteppet er fortsatt mindre komfortabelt.

Brent crude rose about 0.7% towards $97 a barrel and WTI gained roughly 0.8% to above $92 after fresh US-Iran attacks around the Strait of Hormuz.

ANZ analysts told The Wall Street Journal that the latest escalation reduced the chances of a quick normalisation in Middle East oil flows.

Higher energy prices add to inflation concerns before Friday’s US CPI report.

The 10-year Treasury yield remained near 4.78%, while markets were assigning roughly a 58% probability to a September Fed increase.