Kospi's 3.56% jump triggered a buy-side sidecar. Korea's chip exports just surged 180%.

By Mia Park · Korea Desk · July 21, 2026, 8:31 AM ET

Key points

Kospi closed at 6,747.95 Tuesday, up 3.56%, one day after posting its worst one-month drop among 46 major economies, and the rally briefly triggered a five-minute buy-side sidecar.
The bounce tracks back to Korea's own export data, not a fresh bank call: semiconductor shipments in the first 20 days of July jumped 180.6% year over year to $22.1 billion.
Samsung Electronics rose 6.15% to 259,000 won (about $173) and SK Hynix rose 4.08% to 1,836,000 won (about $1,224); some top traders bought SK Hynix while taking profit on Samsung after its own robotics-unit news.

Kospi closed at 6,747.95 on Tuesday, up 231.68 points, or 3.56%, clawing back a chunk of Monday's rout. That gain landed exactly on top of Monday's close of 6,516.27, the number this site flagged as Kospi's worst one-month drop among 46 major economies. One green day does not undo a month like that. Kospi is still down about 28% from its own intraday record of 9,385.59, and still below Thursday's 6,820.60 close from before the worst of the slide. But the size and speed of Tuesday's move was enough to briefly halt the market: at 12:41 p.m. local time, Kospi 200 futures were up 5.17% from the prior close, triggering a five-minute buy-side sidecar, a mirror image of the sell-side sidecar that hit the index twice during last week's crash.

What actually drove it

Korea's customs data for the first 20 days of July showed overall exports up 52.3% year over year to $54.9 billion, with semiconductors doing almost all of the work: chip shipments alone jumped 180.6% to $22.1 billion, pushing the country to a $12.2 billion trade surplus for the period. Daishin Securities analyst Lee Kyoung-min put it plainly, attributing the rally to "bargain hunting concentrated on semiconductors," now that Samsung and SK Hynix were trading well off their highs after three straight down sessions. A separate tailwind helped risk appetite generally: Tehran was reported to have received new mediation proposals from Pakistan and Qatar aimed at ending the conflict with the United States, easing some of the war-risk premium that had been weighing on markets all month.

JPMorgan has been loudly bullish on Kospi since the spring. Strategist Mixo Das raised the bank's 12-month base-case target to 12,500, with a bull case of 15,000, in a report published June 25, calling for a "higher for longer" memory upcycle as AI demand keeps outrunning supply. Even that report admitted the mismatch, saying the bank stayed "directionally bullish on Korea equities despite ongoing forced foreign selling and elevated volatility." That call is nearly a month old, not something published this week, and the volatility it flagged was real: foreign ownership of Samsung Electronics fell to its lowest level in 17 years this month, with foreign investors staying persistent net sellers of Korean chip stocks through most of July. JPMorgan's long-term thesis on Korean memory has not changed. What was actually happening in the market through mid-July looked messier than the bank's headline target suggested.

Samsung and SK Hynix didn't move together

Samsung Electronics closed up 6.15% at 259,000 won, about $173. SK Hynix closed up 4.08% at 1,836,000 won, about $1,224. Foreign and institutional investors were net buyers Tuesday, a combined 1.67 trillion won, about $1.11 billion. Retail investors sold, 1.64 trillion won net, about $1.09 billion. But the two chipmakers were not simply riding the same wave. At Mirae Asset Securities, the brokerage's own top-performing traders, investors ranked in the top 1% for one-month returns on its platform, were net buyers of SK Hynix and net sellers of Samsung as of late morning. Samsung had its own news that day too: the company announced a new robotics unit, and some of those top traders used the pop to take profit rather than add to the position.

Sources

Figures are from South Korean market reporting as described above, converted to US dollars at roughly 1,500 won to the dollar. This is general market commentary and not investment advice. Always do your own research and consider speaking with a licensed financial professional before making any investment decision.

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Frequently asked questions

Why did Kospi jump 3.56% on July 21, 2026?

Bargain hunting after Monday's crash, combined with a new export report showing Korea's semiconductor shipments grew 180.6% year over year in the first 20 days of July to $22.1 billion. Daishin Securities analyst Lee Kyoung-min attributed the move to "bargain hunting concentrated on semiconductors." The rally also triggered a five-minute buy-side sidecar around 12:41 p.m. local time, when Kospi 200 futures were up 5.17% from the prior close.

Did a JPMorgan call drive Kospi's rebound?

Not a new one. JPMorgan has been publicly bullish on Kospi since the spring, raising its 12-month base-case target to 12,500 (bull case 15,000) in a report published June 25, calling for a "higher for longer" memory upcycle, but that call is nearly a month old. Even that report acknowledged "ongoing forced foreign selling" in Korea. Foreign ownership of Samsung Electronics fell to its lowest level in 17 years this month. The rebound tracks much more closely to Tuesday's export data than to any bank's standing target.

How did Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix perform?

Samsung Electronics closed up 6.15% at 259,000 won, about $173, and SK Hynix closed up 4.08% at 1,836,000 won, about $1,224. Combined foreign and institutional buying came to 1.67 trillion won, about $1.11 billion, while retail investors were net sellers of 1.64 trillion won, about $1.09 billion. Mirae Asset Securities' top-performing traders were net buyers of SK Hynix and net sellers of Samsung the same morning, partly to take profit after Samsung announced a new robotics unit.

Mia Park · Korea Desk

Mia Park was born and raised in Korea and covers its markets and news for AIStockWire, from the Kospi to Samsung and SK Hynix. She got her start writing for a Korean entertainment blog, a long way from stock filings, but she has always liked knowing what is happening back home before anyone else does.