South Korea stocks have entered bull market in about a month as AI trade roars back

Employees celebrate the close of trading for the year at the Korea Exchange (KRX) on Monday, Dec. 30, 2013.SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesSouth Korean stocks rallied Thursday, lifting the benchmark Kospi into a technical bull market as a global revival in the AI trade fuels a sharp recovery after last month's historic sell-off.The Kospi jumped over 4% in early trade, taking its rebound from its July 30 low to roughly 23%, data from LSEG showed.Index heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the gains, with both chip giants rising over 4% and 7%, respectively.Investor appetite for technology hardware stocks is returning as the latest earnings from global tech giants point to continued heavy spending on artificial intelligence.The rebound in South Korean stocks could have further to run as strength returns to the country's heavyweight memory-chip makers, according to Fundstrat Global Advisors. Mark Newton, the firm's head of technical strategy, said the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF has broken above a key technical level on the back of gains in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, improving the near-term outlook for Korean equities. The ETF's latest move confirmed a reve...