AI Boom Boosts Asia-Pacific Stock Sentiment as KOSPI Continues to Hit New Highs Nearing 8,000 Points; JPMorgan Calls for 10,000 Point Target.

Tradingkey - Last Friday, strong U.S. employment data combined with a surge in AI chip trading propelled U.S. stocks to new all-time highs. The S&P 500 posted its sixth consecutive weekly gain, while chip stocks helped the Nasdaq surge 1.71%.

Buoyed by high investment sentiment in chips, Asian stock markets generally opened higher today. Both the KOSPI and the Nikkei 225 continued to hit record highs, though intraday performance was mixed.

South Korea's KOSPI index opened higher and continued its upward trend in early trading, reaching a record high of 7,899.32 points intraday. By the close, it rose 4.32% to 7,822.19 points. Over the five trading days since May, the index has surged a cumulative 18.54%. Among heavyweight stocks, SK Hynix rose 12.87%, Samsung Electronics gained 6.42%, and Hyundai Motor climbed 4.89%.

In its latest research report, Goldman Sachs named South Korean equities as its top pick among Asian stock markets, raising its 12-month target for the KOSPI index from 8,000 to 9,000 points, approximately 20% above current levels.

It is worth noting that Samsung and SK Hynix together account for approximately 44% of the index's total market capitalization, meaning they are the primary drivers of the KOSPI's gains. Their rally is mainly fueled by expanding demand for AI infrastructure, with the supply shortage of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) serving as the core narrative for this valuation growth.

Reports indicate that AI capital expenditure is expected to exceed $600 billion by 2026. As dominant players in the HBM market, Samsung and SK Hynix have secured long-term supply agreements with AI giants like NVIDIA. Simply put, the movement of the South Korean stock market is essentially a barometer for the memory chip industry.

In its latest forecast, JPMorgan raised its base-case target for the KOSPI from 7,000 to 9,000 points and its bull-case target from 8,500 to 10,000 points, stating that the next two years could represent a sustained upcycle for memory chips.

Meanwhile, the Nikkei 225 hit a new high in early trading before trending lower, with losses widening in the afternoon. It closed down 0.47% at 62,417.88 points.

Among heavyweights, SoftBank Group reversed its gains to fall as much as 6.43%, Advantest dropped 2.91%, and Toyota Motor declined 1.66%. From a sector perspective, the decline was primarily driven by a pullback in AI-related stocks.

The sharp contrast between the Nikkei and the KOSPI further indicates that market pricing has shifted from simple capital expenditure expansion to a focus on order certainty. This suggests that Japanese "AI concept stocks," including SoftBank, are not at the heart of the current AI hardware supply chain.

On the other hand, Japan's economic fundamentals remain significantly weak. On April 28, the Bank of Japan lowered its FY2026 GDP growth forecast from 1.0% to 0.5% while raising its core CPI forecast from 1.9% to 2.8%. Internal divisions over interest rate hikes have emerged, with the market anticipating another possible hike in June or July.

The Taiwan TAIEX index rose 0.45% to close at 41,790.06 points. Among its heavyweights, MediaTek surged 7.99% and ASE Technology Holding climbed 4.84%, while TSMC fell 1.53%.