Nikkei 225 and South Korea's KOSPI Hit Historic Highs in 2026
The Nikkei 225 index surged 2.5% on the day, closing above 68,000 points for the first time, setting a new historical closing record.
The South Korean KOSPI index has accumulated a 75% increase this year and is also currently at a historical high range.
Both major Asian stock markets are strongly driven by technology and AI-related sectors, with semiconductor equipment and memory chip stocks leading the gains.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
The Nikkei 225 had previously broken historical highs multiple times in 2025, mainly benefiting from semiconductor equipment stocks like Tokyo Electron and Advantest. This breakthrough of 68,000 points continues the long-term bull market path under Japan's corporate governance reforms and the favorable weak yen for exports.
In terms of capital flow, overseas funds and domestic pensions in Japan continue to flow into AI supply chain companies, while the South Korean KOSPI is dominated by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix (with a combined weight of over 47%). Institutions amplify semiconductor cycle leverage through ETFs and futures, converting global AI capital demand into local stock market valuation expansion.
Similar to the surge of Taiwan's weighted index in 2023-2024 due to AI chips, East Asian stock markets are currently transitioning from a cyclical recovery to a long-term bull market in AI infrastructure, with Japan and South Korea benefiting significantly as key nodes in the global semiconductor supply chain.
Essentially, this represents capital concentration: global AI-themed funds are highly concentrated in East Asian semiconductor and hardware supply chains, driven by the rigid demand for high-end chips in large model training and inference, pushing profits and valuations of export-oriented companies in Japan and South Korea upward, creating a regional capital siphoning effect.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
Global AI hot money first reaches the source of the supply chain, then spills over to other markets.
When a single industry's weight is too high, the index's gains become a reflection of a few companies.
A bull market is not a broad rise, but a concentrated celebration of capital finding the most scarce bottlenecks.