Seoul stocks rebound as Anthropic IPO revives AI investment sentiment

Korean stocks experienced a rebound on Tuesday, driven by an uptick in semiconductor giants, as the prospect of a major Initial Public Offering (IPO) by U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic sparked renewed investor enthusiasm. The KOSPI index opened at 5,658.65, marking a 3.46 percent increase from the previous close, according to the Korea Exchange.

A buy-side trigger was initiated early in the trading session, temporarily halting automated buying orders for a brief period once the market's surge exceeded the volatility threshold. Despite this, the index remained in the black for the duration of the session, concluding at 5,638.34, up 3.09 percent.

Foreign investors and institutions were net buyers that day, with purchases totaling 835.9 billion won ($631.05 million) and 418.5 billion won respectively. Conversely, retail investors experienced a net loss, selling a total of 1.4 trillion won. The positive market movement came in the wake of news that Anthropic, the creator of the Claude AI chatbot, had submitted a registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an IPO. The AI company is aiming to raise up to $100 billion in the proposed offering.