Shares in Samsung Electronics again climbed to a record high Friday on an outlook for an earlier-than-anticipated recovery in global demand and prices for chips, while foreign investors continued to net purchase local stocks for a sixth consecutive session.
Samsung, the world's No. 1 memory chipmaker, surged 1.54 percent to close at 59,500 won ($51.23), one day after spiking
3.17 percent to reach the highest level since its listing in 1975.
 |
(Yonhap) |
The broader KOSPI advanced 0.91 percent to close at 2,206.39 points, buoyed by massive foreign buying.
Amid optimism for the country's chipmaking industry, foreign investors scooped up 1.18 trillion won worth of local shares in six straight sessions since Jan. 3. Of the total, Samsung Electronics shares took up some 658.5 billion won.
The stock rally came amid fast-spreading optimism that the company's earnings will improve this year on the back of a recovery in the global chipmaking sector and a low base effect after bottoming out in the fourth quarter of last year.
On Wednesday, Samsung Electronics estimated its fourth-quarter operating income at 7.1 trillion won, down 34.26 percent from a year earlier but well above the median market estimate of 6.5 trillion won.
"Despite the lingering geopolitical risks (from the US-Iran military tensions), we have firm expectations that the chipmaking industry will register larger earnings recovery compared to other industries," Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at Eugene Investment and Securities Co., said.
Also on Friday, SK hynix, the world's second-largest DRAM maker, fell 0.1 percent to finish at 98,900 won, after rising to an all-time high of 99,000 won the previous session.
