The KOSPI rose in early trade on November 27, lifted by an overnight rally on Wall Street, and regained the 4000 level for the first time in five sessions.

According to the Korea Exchange, the index stood at 4,017.20 at 10:22 a.m., up 56.33 points, or 1.42 percent, from the previous close.

It last regained the 4000 mark on November 20. It opened at 3,989.45, up 28.58 points, or 0.72 percent, and extended gains.

Foreign investors and institutions bought 58.2 billion won and 111.1 billion won, respectively, in the main board, pushing the index higher. Retail investors sold 161.5 billion won.

Overnight, all three major US indexes rose. A rotation into artificial intelligence shares continued despite firm labour data and lingering expectations of interest rate cuts.

The US Labour Department said continuing jobless claims, which capture filings for more than two consecutive weeks, increased by 7,000 from the previous week, keeping concerns about the labour market. Expectations of a December rate cut supported buying.

Nvidia, up 1.37 percent, and Microsoft, up 1.78 percent, gained after concerns eased over losing dominance in the AI infrastructure market following the rise of Google.

Alphabet, which had recently rallied on its AI service Gemini 3.0 that sharply reduced dependence on graphics processing units, dipped 1.04 percent. The strong US market also boosted sentiment in the domestic market.

The Bank of Korea held its base rate at 2.50 percent as expected, easing early caution in the session.

SK Hynix rose 5.34 percent to return to the 550,000 won range, and Samsung Electronics gained 2.09 percent to reach the 104,000 won level.

Samsung Biologics, LG Energy Solution, Doosan Enerbility, Hanwha Aerospace and KB Financial also traded higher.

Naver, which decided the previous day to acquire Dunamu, fell 2.85 percent.

LG Chem, POSCO Holdings and other secondary battery stocks, as well as Hyundai Motor, were also weaker.