SK hynix hits price limit, lifts Chey stake over 20 percent
The chip giant surged to its daily price ceiling on heavy foreign buying, boosting Chairman Chey Tae-won’s newly purchased shares by more than 20 percent in a day.
SK hynix's stock price is seen on a display board in the trading room of Hana Bank in central Seoul on July 31.AP/YONHAP
SK hynix hit its daily price ceiling on Friday, leaving SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won with a paper gain of more than 20 percent just one day after his purchase of the chipmaker's shares.
As of 2:29 p.m. on Friday, SK hynix was trading at 1.72 million won ($1,200), up 29.95 percent from the previous session. The price reached the maximum daily gain allowed by the Korea Exchange.
The stock surged 28.37 percent at the opening bell and maintained strong momentum throughout the session before hitting the limit in the afternoon.
The Korean bourse sets daily price limits to cap how much an individual stock can rise or fall in a single trading day. The daily price limit for Kospi-listed stocks has been set at plus or minus 30 percent since June 15, 2015.
The rally also lifted leveraged products tied to the chipmaker. Its 2x leveraged SK hynix exchange-traded fund (ETF) climbed as much as 55 percent during intraday trading.
The rally also benefited SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who purchased 3,620 common shares of SK hynix on the open market the previous day. The purchase was valued at about 4.8 billion won based on Thursday's closing price of 1.32 million won.
By 11 a.m. Friday, the value of Chey's newly acquired shares had risen to about 5.93 billion won, which gave him an unrealized gain of roughly 1.03 billion won. As the stock climbed to an intraday high of 1.7 million won, his paper gain briefly widened to about 1.24 billion won.
Samsung Electronics, another major Korean chipmaker, also soared on Friday. As of 2:29 p.m., its share price rose 28.26 percent from the previous trading session to 265,500 won.
Chips made by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are set to be loaded to aircraft heading to Hong Kong at Incheon International Airport on July 30.JOINT PRESS CORPS
The benchmark Kospi index was up 18.12 percent at 6,607.07 as of the same time.
Foreign investors have been aggressively buying semiconductor shares, which had suffered sharp declines in recent weeks.
Individuals were net sellers of 8.01 trillion won, while institutions and foreign investors were net buyers of 331.3 billion won and 7.78 trillion won, respectively.
The tech-heavy Kosdaq also posted sharp gains. As of 2:43 p.m., the index had climbed 11.91 percent to 721.60. As in the Kospi market, retail investors offloaded 415.6 billion won. Institutions and foreign investors bought a net 244.1 billion won and 171.3 billion won, respectively.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
