Asian stock markets experienced widespread declines on Thursday, with South Korea’s Kospi leading the losses by plummeting 6.6%. This downturn was driven by an unexpected interest rate hike from the Bank of Korea and significant sell-offs in technology shares. Among the hardest hit were SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which saw their stocks fall by 11.2% and 8.2%, respectively.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index dropped by 2.9%, influenced by a slump in companies tied to the semiconductor industry. Notable decliners included Kioxia, Tokyo Electron, Advantest, and SoftBank Group. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Taiex recorded a slight decrease of 0.3% as investors awaited the earnings report from chipmaker TSMC. China’s Shanghai Composite also faced a setback, declining by 0.9%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ended the day marginally lower.
Conversely, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index defied the regional downtrend, climbing 1.7%. This uptick was bolstered by Alibaba’s gains following the approval of Apple Intelligence’s AI service in China, which utilizes Alibaba’s Qwen model.
Despite ongoing tensions between the United States and Iran, oil prices showed a modest decline. Brent crude slipped 0.4% to $84.55 per barrel, while US crude fell 0.2% to $79.34 per barrel. Nonetheless, concerns about potential disruptions to shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz continued to provide underlying support to oil prices.
In a contrasting scenario, US stock markets closed higher in the previous session, buoyed by encouraging inflation data and robust corporate earnings. This positive performance in the US offered a counterpoint to the largely negative sentiment observed across Asian markets.
