Samsung Electronics has regained its spot as South Korea’s top stock, driven by investor optimism over its advanced memory chips for AI.

Its shares rose 10% in July, helping make the Kospi the best-performing major equity index globally this year.

Samsung saw a net inflow of about US$1.2 billion, while rival SK Hynix recorded over US$200 million in outflows.

SK Hynix, which currently leads the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market with a 57% share, plans to boost capacity after record earnings.

But analysts say Samsung, holding 27% of the HBM market, could catch up by 2027, reaching parity at 38% each.

Samsung’s outlook is also supported by smartphone growth and governance reforms.

It will report Q2 earnings on July 31.

Recent Samsung developments