Stock Market Impact: Asian equity markets rose, led by South Korea’s KOSPI gaining nearly 5% to 8,874.16 points, driven by AI‑related chip demand; Japanese Nikkei up 1% with SoftBank soaring >10% to a record high; Chinese CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite fell ~1% and 0.4% respectively amid cooling manufacturing PMI data.
Listed Companies and Sectors: Samsung Electronics (005930) and SK Hynix (000660) each jumped ~10% to record highs; LG Electronics (066570) surged ~30%; Nvidia (NVDA) stock slipped 1.45% but CEO Jensen Huang’s scheduled meetings with Korean tech leaders lifted local semiconductor shares; SoftBank Group (9984) rose >10% to become Japan’s most valuable company, overtaking Toyota Motor (7203); Murata Manufacturing (6981) +14%, Kioxia Holdings (285A) +11%.
Investment Flows: Strong AI optimism and Nvidia‑Korean collaborations may attract foreign portfolio inflows into Korean semiconductor equities and potential FDI in AI hardware.
Interest Rates, Inflation, and Liquidity: A softer‑than‑expected U.S. inflation reading earlier in the week supported global risk appetite, indirectly benefitting Asian markets.
Fiscal or Monetary Policy: No direct policy announcements were made; market movements were primarily driven by corporate earnings expectations, AI‑related demand, and geopolitical developments.
