Samsung's stock made its biggest jump since 2008. What inspired investors?

Quotes of Samsung Electronics on the Korean Exchange showed a daily gain, which the market has not seen for almost 20 years. The papers soared as investment funds began aggressively buying back drawdowns while retail investors continued to sell.

Shares of Samsung Electronics jumped 11% on the Korean Exchange on February 3, showing the most significant growth in a single trading session since 2008. SK Hynix, Samsung's main competitor in the market of memory chips for artificial intelligence, added more than 9%, more than recovering yesterday's fall. To smooth out excessive market fluctuations, the management of the Korea Exchange had to activate a trading suspension mechanism for the second day in a row, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

In the morning of February 3, retail investors in Seoul continued to sell stocks out of inertia. At the same time, local and foreign funds, which had organized a sale in Seoul the day before, rushed to buy them up, Bloomberg writes. Interest in Samsung may have been fueled by the news that the company had bought a stake in Invisix, a startup founded by ASML alumni, in order to increase the percentage of acceptable (fully compliant with technical requirements) products.

JPMorgan Chase sees upside potential in the shares of Samsung and SK Hynix, whose combined capitalization accounts for more than a third of South Korea's Kospi index. As the artificial intelligence boom pushes memory chip prices up, both securities could rise 45-50% in 2026, The Wall Street Journal cites a research note from the bank.

The global interest of investors from all over the world in the growth of the value of Korean shares will not fade in the near future, said the head of international business Must Asset Management James Lee. However, for a qualitative transition of the market to a new level, investors should stop focusing only on Samsung and SK Hynix securities and start buying securities of companies from other sectors, the expert stated.

In general, analysts demonstrate an optimistic attitude towards the Korean technology giants: according to FactSet, Samsung shares have 36 recommendations to buy (Buy or Overweight) out of 40, SK Hynix - 39 out of 43. The average target prices indicate a similar upside potential - 21.6% for Samsung and 22.1% for SK Hynix.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor