South Korea’s world-beating stock market eyes its MSCI moment

South Korea's Kospi has surged over 90% this year, becoming the world's best-performing major equity benchmark driven by AI-related gains in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which together account for more than half the index weight. MSCI is set to announce its annual market-classification review on June 23, with most investors expecting Korea to remain an emerging market for now, though many view a developed-market upgrade as a matter of time. An upgrade could attract an estimated $30 billion in passive inflows, potentially redirecting some flows from existing emerging-market heavyweights like India, where Korea currently holds a 23% weight in the MSCI EM index.