Top gainers on the country's benchmark KOSPI for the first six months of this year included semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, as well as electronic component and equipment manufacturers such as Daeduck Electronics, Hanmi Semiconductor, DB HiTek, LG Innotek and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.
Power-related companies also ranked highly including Daehan Electric Wire, Gaon Cable, HD Hyundai Energy Solutions, Hyosung Heavy Industries and LS Electric, reflecting expectations that rising AI investment is boosting demand for power infrastructure.
With top-performing stocks concentrated in AI-related sectors such as semiconductors, electronic parts and power infrastructure, construction stocks including Daewoo Engineering & Construction and Kumho Engineering Construction also rose on hopes for increased nuclear power and infrastructure spending.
Holding companies such as SK, Samsung C&T and OCI Holdings rose on expectations of corporate value-up policies, while financial stocks including Mirae Asset Securities and Samsung Life Insurance also gained amid a strong market rally and higher trading volumes.
Many market analysts say the biggest shift this year has been AI's spillover from chips into power equipment and cables. Increased investment in data centers has lifted expectations not only for components such as high-bandwidth memory and multilayer ceramic capacitors, but also for transmission and distribution equipment, transformers and power cables, lifting related stocks.
Market focus is now shifting from expectations to earnings, with investors increasingly looking for proof that AI-driven optimism can be backed by actual results. Samsung Electronics is set to report its second-quarter preliminary sales results on Tuesday, with some estimates putting the figure at a whopping 85 trillion won.
Shin Eol, an analyst at SangSangIn Securities, said the market is entering a new phase in which investors still believe in AI's growth potential but now want to see it reflected in real earnings, not just rising valuations.
"Micron's recent results confirmed the sustainability of the AI cycle, but the market is now paying more attention to whether AI translates into corporate earnings than to AI investment itself," Shin said. "With earnings season arriving, investors should be more selective rather than simply chasing liquidity-driven flows," he added.
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