South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI staged a sharp rebound on Friday, rising about 17% to around 6,549 after suffering a massive three-day selloff. The move nearly erased the losses from earlier in the week and marked a dramatic shift in sentiment after one of the index’s steepest recent declines.
The earlier slump had been driven by worries over intensifying competition from Chinese memory chipmakers. Those concerns sparked heavy selling in semiconductor shares, a key part of the South Korean market, and dragged the broader index sharply lower over several sessions.
Friday’s rally appears to have been fueled by a strong recovery in heavyweight stocks, especially in the chip sector. After such a deep and rapid drop, investors moved back into beaten-down names, helping lift the KOSPI and reverse much of the damage from the selloff.
The rebound highlights how closely South Korea’s market is tied to semiconductor sentiment. When fears over memory chip competition intensify, the KOSPI can come under pressure quickly, but when those same stocks recover, the index can surge just as fast.
