Japanese and Korean Stock Indices Rally Together; SK Hynix Hits All-Time High in Afternoon Trading
0xBroomberg
SK Hynix surged 5.84% to a record high on June 17, driven by reports of a shareholder return package worth up to KRW 100 trillion, a Daiwa target-price more-than-doubling to KRW 3.6 million, and a multi-year AI memory partnership with Nvidia — three catalysts firing on the same day and lifting both Japanese and Korean indices.
How much did the two markets gain?
South Korea's KOSPI closed up 137.64 points (+1.58%) at 8,864.24; Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 497.75 points (+0.72%) to 69,902.25, another record close.
SK Hynix led the afternoon surge, climbing 5.84% to KRW 2.521 million — an all-time high.
This means → the session was not a broad-based rally; SK Hynix alone pulled the Korean index higher in the afternoon.
Where did the KRW 100 trillion shareholder-return number come from?
The *Korea Economic Daily* reported on June 16 that SK Hynix plans to unveil a shareholder return package worth up to KRW 100 trillion (~$66.4 billion) in Q4, after completing a U.S. ADR (American Depositary Receipt — a vehicle that lets foreign shares trade on U.S. exchanges) listing. The package would include share buybacks with cancellation and cash dividends.
SK Hynix also plans to raise roughly KRW 40 trillion (~$26.5 billion) through new ADR issuance for AI infrastructure. To ease dilution concerns, the ADR size has been trimmed from 2.4% to below 2% of total shares, with the listing expected by mid-July.
SK Hynix later clarified it is exploring multiple options to boost shareholder value but has never discussed the specific scale cited in the report.
In plain terms = the media dropped a headline-grabbing number; the company did not deny it is working on a plan, but explicitly said "we never discussed that size" — the market chose to buy first and verify later.
Why did Daiwa more than double its target price?
Daiwa Securities reiterated a "Buy" rating on SK Hynix and raised its target from KRW 1.67 million to KRW 3.6 million — an increase of over 115%.
The key shift: Daiwa switched its valuation framework from price-to-book (PB) to price-to-earnings (PE), arguing that long-term supply agreements now lock in stable earnings, making an earnings-based valuation more appropriate than an asset-based one.
Daiwa also assigned a 35% premium over the global DRAM peer-average PE.
This means → Daiwa did not just raise a number — it changed the pricing logic entirely, from "what is this company worth?" to "how much can it earn each year?" That re-framing raises the long-term valuation ceiling far more than any single target adjustment.
How deep is the Nvidia partnership now?
SK Hynix and Nvidia signed a multi-year technology cooperation agreement to co-develop next-generation memory for AI factories, covering Nvidia's Vera Rubin AI supercomputer and other platforms.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has publicly called SK Hynix Nvidia's largest memory partner, with annual procurement already at multi-billion-dollar scale.
SK Hynix is installing additional back-end equipment at its Cheongju P&T6 fab, making final preparations for mass production of HBM4 — fourth-generation high-bandwidth memory (vertically stacked memory chips designed to feed data to AI processors at ultra-high speed).
This reflects a shift from "Nvidia supplier" to "Nvidia co-development partner" — the deeper the tie, the higher the order certainty, and the harder it becomes to replace.
Three catalysts at once — what is the market really betting on?
The shareholder-return report addresses "willingness to share profits." Daiwa's valuation switch addresses "what the company is worth." The Nvidia long-term deal addresses "how much it can earn going forward."
All three surfaced on the same day, giving the market a complete narrative: SK Hynix has growth certainty, dividend intent, and institutional endorsement simultaneously.
In plain terms = the record high was not driven by a single headline — three signals across three different dimensions turned green at once, and that resonance carries more force than any one of them alone.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.