STOCKS | Goldman Sachs Cuts KOSPI Target 25% to 9,000, Still Sees More Than 60% Upside

Goldman Sachs cut its 12-month target for South Korea’s KOSPI by 25%, from 12,000 to 9,000, after the index fell to a seven-month low. According to Sina Finance, the bank said risk-averse trading had spread concerns about memory chips across the broader market and described South Korean stocks as significantly oversold; its 9,000 target still implied more than 60% upside from the index’s 5,475 level when the report was published. Goldman had maintained its 12,000 target in August and October after raising it in June, having set a year-end 2026 target of 6,400 early in the year. The KOSPI hit a record 9,385.59 on June 19 before falling more than 35% over four months. On October 26, it dropped below 5,500, closing at a seven-month low, while foreign investors sold nearly 700 billion won net. Despite record third-quarter results from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the KOSPI fell 3.48% on October 30 after losing as much as 5% intraday, triggering a circuit breaker. Goldman cited rising concerns about AI-related trades, including the returns on heavy AI investment and the sustainability of financing. South Korean scholar Kim Yun-jun said the decline reflected excessive valuations rather than a bearish view of the market, and argued that semiconductor fundamentals remained sound. South Korea’s September exports, adjusted for working-day differences, rose 104.9% year over year to a record $120.9 billion; chip exports climbed 263% to a record $60.3 billion. The country’s GDP grew 1.0% quarter over quarter in the third quarter, compared with 0.6% in the second quarter. Morgan Stanley said the AI boom was creating a stronger, longer-lasting memory-chip cycle, while traditional boom-and-bust dynamics tied to supply growth, prices and earnings remained.