For 24 days straight, foreign investors sold Korean stocks. On Friday, they finally bought.
The reason had little to do with Korea.
The spark came overnight from Washington. Hopes grew that the US and Iran would step back from war. US tech stocks jumped, and Korea opened the next day chasing them.
The rally was broad. Almost every big chip name opened sharply higher. It was a sharp turn from days of red.
The move was so fast a safeguard kicked in. It briefly paused trading to cool things off. The Kospi shot up as much as 8% before settling. Samsung jumped as much as 13%, then closed 7.9% higher. By the close, the Kospi sat near 8,124. At its peak it had touched 8,389.
Not every chip stock held its gains. SK Hynix soared early, then gave most of it back. It ended up just 2.3% as traders cashed out. Another chip name, SK Square, climbed more than 10%.
Foreign buyers came back in a big way. They bought a net 2.7 trillion won of stock. That broke a 24-day selling streak.
We cover the moves shaking global markets every morning in Market Briefs, delivered in five minutes, with a free investing masterclass when you sign up.
Korea's market lives and dies by chips. Samsung and SK Hynix are huge memory-chip makers. They drive Korea's exports and its market alike. So when the chip trade wobbles, Korea feels it most.
The pain before Friday was real. Foreigners had dumped Korean stocks for weeks. The selloff wiped out tens of billions of dollars.
That's why the week was rough. Even after Friday's pop, the Kospi ended the week down 0.5%, after a 3.7% drop the week before.
These wild swings come with the territory. One Seoul brokerage even called the selloff healthy. It cooled off chip stocks that had run too hot.
You could see the mood shift in the won. That's Korea's currency. It got stronger against the dollar as fear faded. The won had been sliding for weeks as money fled, and Friday's turn put a floor under it for now. A stronger won helps stocks, since it makes Korean assets worth more in dollars. Investors stopped hiding in safe-haven assets, the things people grab when scared, like the US dollar.
The government tried to calm nerves too. In a monthly report, it said exports and business confidence are holding up. But it warned the Middle East still poses risks.
There was a company spark as well. Reports said Google may use Samsung for part of its next AI chip, which gave the rally an extra push.
Friday's bounce rode on one headline from Washington. The next one could just as easily undo it.
Korea's market runs on two things now: chips and calm nerves. For one Friday, it had both.
Get the daily newsletter here, and a 45-minute course on finding investments is included for new readers.
