South Korea's Kospi hits 8,000 for first time

South Korea's Kospi stock index breached the historic 8,000-point level for the first time during intraday trading on Friday, crossing the threshold just 13 minutes after the market opened at 7,951.75. The benchmark index reached around 8,031 points by 9:21 a.m., achieving the milestone only seven trading days after first surpassing 7,000 on May 6. This remarkable rally was driven by positive market sentiment surrounding US President Donald Trump's high-stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which broadly met investor expectations and fueled gains in artificial intelligence-related shares both on Wall Street and in Seoul. The Kospi's ascent to the new peak came despite foreign investors continuing their sell-offs for the sixth consecutive session, dumping approximately 2.1 trillion won in Korean shares. Retail investors and institutional buyers absorbed these sales, purchasing 1.8 trillion won and 193 billion won respectively. Overnight, major US indexes also rallied, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.75 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq gaining 0.88 percent, and the S&P 500 advancing 0.77 percent, all reaching new highs. AI chip giant Nvidia jumped 4.39 percent, Broadcom rose 5.52 percent, and TSMC added 4.48 percent on expectations of closer US-China cooperation. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics saw mixed trading, declining 0.68 percent at the open before recovering, while its chipmaking rival SK hynix gained 0.61 percent. Battery makers LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI surged 4.3 percent and 4.09 percent respectively, and Hyundai Motor jumped 2.11 percent. The previous day, the Kospi had closed at a fresh record of 7,981.41 on Thursday, narrowly missing the 8,000-point mark amid volatile trading that saw the index dip as low as 7,842.72 before rebounding. The Korean won weakened to 1,496.4 won against the US dollar on Friday morning, down 5.4 won from the previous session.