Defense and Construction Stocks Rally on Ceasefire as BOJ Hikes Rates and Samsung Eyes Boston Dynamics Stake

KOSPI Rallies Past 2% on Three-Day Foreign and Institutional Buying

The KOSPI opened around 1.5% higher and extended gains to more than 2%, breaking above the 8,700 mark after the Bank of Japan's rate announcement. Foreign and institutional investors extended their net buying streak to a third straight session, with Samsung Electronics up about 1% and SK Hynix rallying roughly 6% to support the index.

The KOSDAQ, however, stayed in negative territory near -1% despite retail buying. The won held relatively steady against the dollar around the 1,511 level.

Defense, Construction, and a Samsung Robotics Stake Report Drive the Tape

LIG DEFENSE & Aerospace surged as much as 17% intraday after announcing a strategic partnership and joint venture with Germany's Rheinmetall, with Hanwha Aerospace, Samyang Comtech, and Firstec also rallying. Defense shares climbing despite the US-Iran ceasefire reflects expectations that depleted Middle East weapons stockpiles will need replenishing, alongside NATO's expanding European defense budgets.

Construction stocks rose in tandem, with Daewoo E&C up 18% and DL E&C up about 12% on reconstruction hopes, though analysts cautioned that meaningful order flow may not materialize until the second half of 2027.

Late in the session, a report emerged that Samsung Electronics is exploring the purchase of Hyundai Motor's stake in Boston Dynamics, arriving just as SoftBank's call-option deadline on its 10% stake falls due this week. The move is being read as a signal that Samsung intends to expand beyond chips, smartphones, and appliances into humanoid robotics.

Nvidia's Bond Sale Signals an AI Financing Arms Race

Nvidia returned to the investment-grade bond market for the first time in four years, planning to raise up to $25 billion. That a company sitting on more than $50 billion in cash would still choose to borrow struck some as odd, but the market read it not as a distress signal but as a preemptive move to lock in long-term funding for data center and AI infrastructure buildout — reinforced by a seven-tranche structure spanning two- to thirty-year maturities.

The news was taken as a sign the AI buildout still has room to run, sending the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up more than 5%. The reasoning: if even the world's biggest cash generator needs more capital, the market isn't close to saturated — a dynamic that also puts cash-rich Korean chipmakers like Samsung and SK Hynix in the spotlight as funding capacity itself becomes a competitive edge.

Separately, reports surfaced that SK Hynix is considering building a data center in the United States, fueling speculation about potential equity investments in Korean firms within Nvidia's broader AI ecosystem.

Bank of Japan Raises Rates to a 31-Year High

The Bank of Japan raised its policy rate from 0.75% to 1%, its highest level in 31 years, a move the market had all but priced in given rising inflation and yen weakness. At the same time, the BOJ said it would pause further tapering of its bond purchases until April 2027, keeping monthly purchases around 2 trillion yen — a sign it is trying to manage the pace of tightening carefully.

Japanese rates matter globally through the yen carry trade, where investors borrow cheaply in yen to fund higher-yielding assets abroad. Whether the hike triggers an unwind is the key question, though panelists noted that attractive overseas returns still exist and that carry positioning has already been pared back compared with two years ago, easing fears of a disorderly shock.

Middle East Reconstruction Talk Follows the Ceasefire, With a Catch

Optimism about Middle East reconstruction is building after the US-Iran ceasefire, though panelists cautioned that oil-producing governments aren't necessarily flush with spare cash — since they collect no income tax, oil revenue is largely committed to funding social welfare, meaning the scale and timing of actual reconstruction orders bear watching.

Reports indicated President Trump floated a roughly $3 billion reconstruction fund and named South Korea and Japan among potential contributors. The structure is seen as a way for Washington to provide support without formally admitting liability for war reparations, routing funds through a privately-led vehicle instead — with the terms attached to participation likely to shape how reconstruction-related stocks trade from here.

Commentary: A Media Trust Crisis and Uneven Policy Speed on Housing

The hosts sharply criticized the case of a financial reporter arrested for pocketing roughly 9 billion won through front-running trades, noting that the newspaper involved still hasn't been named publicly and appears to be shielded within the industry. Citing President Lee Jae-myung's social media post urging the press to 'end stock manipulation that brings ruin and return to honest journalism,' they argued that front-running and biased reporting inflict damage on ordinary investors and corrode the market's trust capital, warranting much harsher punishment and full public disclosure of the outlet involved.

Host Lee Kwang-soo also flagged Seoul City's aggressive push for looser redevelopment rules — easing loan-to-value limits for relocation funding, relaxing transfer restrictions on union membership, and loosening floor-area-ratio and rental-unit requirements — arguing that because reconstruction relies on public floor-area assets, it must carry public-interest obligations. He criticized the proposals for focusing solely on homeowners while ignoring the many tenants who will be displaced, and contrasted Mayor Oh Se-hoon's rapid rollout with what he called the far slower pace of housing measures aimed at renters and first-time buyers from the central government and ruling party.