Major brokerage houses are growing confident that the Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI) will continue to gain ground in 2026, the Year of the Fire Horse, in the wake of recent milestones such as hitting a fresh record above four-thousand-300 to ring in the new year.

Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said in a report published Tuesday that the company raised its annual KOSPI forecast range to between three-thousand-900 and five-thousand-200 points, noting the index has been rallying since the start of the year on the back of strong foreign inflows and significant earnings growth, especially in semiconductors driven by AI demand.

Kim Yong-gu, a researcher at Yuanta Securities, said the firm revised its KOSPI target from the three-thousand-800 to four-thousand-600 range to a range of four-thousand-200 to five-thousand-200 points, reflecting continued strong growth in semiconductor exports and significant price increases.

Kim pointed out that Samsung Electronics’ 2026 operating profit consensus was only 46-point-two trillion won at the end of September, but jumped to 90-point-eight trillion won as of Monday this week, while for SK hynix it jumped from 47-point-eight trillion won to 80-point-five trillion won.

He added that Samsung Electronics and SK hynix might even see a combined operating profit in the 300 trillion won range this year, which would be unprecedented and only possible because of the semiconductor surge.

In the past two months, eight securities firms have revised their KOSPI forecasts, setting their lower end at three-thousand-500 to four-thousand and their upper end at four-thousand-500 to five-thousand-500, with upward outlooks projecting that the KOSPI will exceed the five-thousand mark this year.