South Korea's benchmark KOSPI index (Korea Composite Stock Price Index) surged to a new all-time high on Tuesday, climbing nearly 2 percent to around 6,343 points, surpassing its previous record close of 6,307.27 set in February. The rally was driven by renewed investor optimism over U.S.-Iran peace negotiations and strong earnings momentum in the tech sector, with Samsung Electronics posting a record quarterly operating profit of over 50 trillion won on surging AI-related chip demand. The milestone is seen as significant given the index had suffered swings of up to 12 percent in a single session since the onset of the U.S.-Iran conflict, and major investment banks Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have recently raised their KOSPI targets to 8,000 and 8,500 points respectively, citing improving fundamentals.