South Korea's KOSPI is in focus on Thursday, the first trading day of the new year, for whether it can break its all-time high.

On the last trading day of last year on Dec. 30, the KOSPI finished at 4,214.17, down 6.39 points, or 0.15 percent, after moving in a narrow range.

The index opened down 26.81 points, or 0.64 percent, at 4,193.75. It slipped to 4,186.95, then rose as high as 4,226.36, showing no clear direction.

It at one point in the morning narrowed the gap to just 0.39 points from the intraday record of 4,226.75 set on Nov. 4. The record high on a closing basis is 4,221.87, set on Nov. 3.

U.S. stocks also ended 2025 with a second straight day of declines in the three major indexes.

On Dec. 31 local time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 48,063.29, down 303.77 points, or 0.63 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange.

The S&P 500 fell 50.74 points, or 0.74 percent, to 6,845.50, and the Nasdaq Composite slid 177.09 points, or 0.76 percent, to 23,241.99.

Investors leaned toward risk aversion in thin year-end trading, with selling outweighing buying for a fourth straight day.

Stocks fell on the market holiday in both South Korea and the United States, but the annual results last year were strong.

According to U.S. local media, the S&P 500 posted an unofficial gain of 16.4 percent. The Nasdaq jumped 20.4 percent on the back of an artificial intelligence boom, and the Dow rose 13.0 percent.

The KOSPI gained 75.6 percent, ranking first among Group of 20 and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries.

President Lee Jae-myung mentioned the KOSPI topping 4,000 as one of last year's achievements in his New Year's address the previous day.

The KOSPI, which opens at 10 a.m. on Thursday, may try again to set a new intraday record, using strong export data released over the holiday as a positive factor.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Wednesday that December exports rose 13.4 percent to $69.57 billion, the highest for any December on record. That was well above the consensus forecast of 8.3 percent.

Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, judged that the domestic stock market could be weighed down by weakness in U.S. shares over the past two sessions, but that South Korea's December export surprise is expected to offset the burden.

Kim Yong-gu, a researcher at Yuanta Securities, said he expects the KOSPI in January to show a neutral-to-positive trend within a range of 4,100 to 4,350. He said a three-part virtuous cycle of the global economy, sales and earnings and the government's all-out drive to revitalise the economy and stock market are expected to lead a strong start for the market in the new year.

[Yonhap]