SEOUL, July 3, 2026, 18:02 (KST)
- SK hynix Inc. KRX:000660 jumped 10.9% to 2,425,000 won, clawing back after dropping 15% on Thursday.
- The equity value went up by about 169.6 trillion won in one day, more than the 100 trillion won Cheongju plant project based on share-count math.
- KOSPI jumped 5.76% to 8,088.34. KRX paused program trading for five minutes after a buy-side sidecar was hit.
SK hynix Inc. KRX:000660 jumped 10.9% to 2,425,000 won Friday, pulling back from this week’s chip-stock rout. The gain from 2,187,000 won at Thursday’s close and 712.70 million shares outstanding meant SK hynix tacked on about 169.6 trillion won to its market cap in a day. Trading volume was 7.95 million shares, or around 1.42 times the average, according to market data.
The value move was about 1.7 times the 100 trillion won SK hynix plans to invest in Cheongju: 80 trillion won is set for a NAND fab by 2029, plus 20 trillion won earmarked for a chip packaging plant by late 2027. The total is about 5.8% of SK hynix’s 1,728.30 trillion won market cap at Friday’s close. CEO Kwak Noh-jung said NAND demand is up and supply remains tight. The company noted it could shift the long-term plans depending on chip demand and customer spending.
| SK hynix price math | Figure |
|---|---|
| Friday close | 2,425,000 won |
| Last session’s close | 2,187,000 won |
| One-day move | 10.88% |
| Equity value increase, by shares out | 169.6 trillion won |
| Cheongju NAND and packaging project | 100 trillion won |
| Plan as % of market cap | 5.8% |
| Friday turnover vs. daily | 1.42x |
The stock was still 18.8% under its 52-week high of 2,987,000 won. It moved between 2,045,000 won and 2,454,000 won, a 409,000 won band, or 16.9% of its last close. For investors, that’s the takeaway: the market is weighing the duration of the AI memory cycle more than the plant costs.
KOSPI in South Korea finished up 440.25 points, or 5.76%, closing at 8,088.34 on Friday. This follows Thursday’s 7.89% drop. Around 1:50 p.m., the Korea Exchange put a buy-side sidecar in place, halting program trading in KOSPI stocks for five minutes, Yonhap reported.
| July 3 market move | Last / move | Read-through |
|---|---|---|
| SK hynix Inc. KRX:000660 | 2,425,000 won, up 10.9% | Korean memory leader in the rebound |
| KOSPI | 8,088.34, up 5.76% | Index rally powered by chip names |
| Samsung Electronics Co Ltd KRX:005930 | gained 8.2% | Another big Korean memory play |
| Kioxia Holdings Corp (TYO:285A) | rose 9.2% | Japan’s main NAND competitor |
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix lifted the Korean market on Friday, shaking off losses from Thursday. Kioxia shares in Japan rebounded, too. Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management told AP that Asian stock markets “found some footing” after a rough tech selloff, noting Korea’s sharp turnaround in what had been a crowded trade. AP News
SK hynix shares dropped 15% Thursday, while Samsung ended down 9%, after Reuters reported Meta Platforms Inc. NASDAQ:META is planning to sell computing power. That fueled worries about too much AI computing supply. Business Insider quoted IG analyst Fabien Yip: “profit-taking appears to be a key driver.” Reuters
Analysts are divided. Zavier Wong at eToro said “a lot can happen to a technology cycle” before fresh capacity arrives. Morningstar’s Jing Jie Yu called the memory upcycle “substantially stronger than expected,” but cautioned that investors still need to figure out how long the cycle lasts until new supply hits. Business Insider
Japan gave new backing to the NAND trade, with Reuters saying Kioxia shipped samples of next-gen memory out of its Kitakami plant as AI inference drives up demand for high-capacity NAND. Satoru Oyama, a consultant and former Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TYO:8035) staffer, said chipmakers had sidelined NAND investment. “They haven’t been able to respond to the current NAND boom at all,” he said. Reuters
Kioxia CEO Hiroo Ota said the company plans to expand Fab2 output to keep up with demand. IwaiCosmo Securities analyst Kazuyoshi Saito said Kioxia is two to four years ahead of competitors in NAND performance and power use. That puts the SK hynix M17 fab in a timing squeeze—too late if shortages persist, too large if AI budgets fall off before 2029.
