SEOUL — Shares of Samsung Electronics surged Wednesday, closing up 6.68% as South Korea's benchmark Kospi index extended its winning streak to a third consecutive session, driven by intensifying investor appetite for the country's dominant semiconductor manufacturers.

Samsung Electronics closed at 255,000 won, up 16,000 won from the previous session, according to Korea JoongAng Daily. Rival chipmaker SK Hynix also posted a strong gain, rising 5.54% to close at 1.5 million won. The rally in both stocks helped drive the broader Kospi index up 233.51 points, or 3.68%, to close at 6,579.04, following gains of 0.65% and 0.73% in the two preceding sessions.

The Kospi opened Wednesday 1.47% higher and continued adding to those gains as foreign and institutional investors poured money into major chipmakers throughout the session. The rally proved forceful enough that the Korea Exchange activated a buy-side sidecar at 11:57 a.m. local time, a circuit-breaker-style mechanism that temporarily suspends program trading for five minutes when the market moves sharply in one direction. Trading volume for the session was moderate, at 355 million shares worth 26.21 trillion won, or roughly $18.49 billion, even as decliners outnumbered advancers 477 to 378 across the broader market.

Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said the session reflected renewed........

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