SEOUL, November 24 (AJP) - Asian markets showed a mild recovery from last week's AI bubble tantrums with key indices pointing to north in early Monday session.
South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI was trading 1 percent higher at 3,890 as of 10:30 a.m., recovering part of Friday's near 4-percent dive. Further rises were constrained by expectations of the Bank of Korea signaling extended pause in easing at its final Monetary Policy Board meeting of the year amid jump in the dollar-won rate that has sent the Korean currency at its cheapest level since the 2009 global financial crisis.
Institutional investors continued to support the market, buying 187.5 billion won ($127 million). Foreign investors — who dumped 2.4 trillion won on Nov. 21 alone — turned net buyers, picking up 120 billion won so far today. Retail investors sold 302.1 billion won to net profits amid volatile market.
The won remained weak. The dollar was trading at 1,471 won at 10:15 a.m., down only 0.9 won from the Friday close despite speculated intervention from authorities.
Semiconductor stocks saw another sharp swing. Samsung Electronics climbed 4.2 percent to 99,000 won ($67.2), and SK hynix rose 3.26 percent to 538,000 won.
Battery heavyweights, however, struggled to gain traction. LG Energy Solution fell 2.12 percent to 416,500 won, and Samsung SDI slipped 0.6 percent to 286,500 won. Despite strong performance in the energy storage system (ESS) segment, concerns over slowing EV demand and intensifying competition from Chinese battery-makers CATL and BYD weighed on shares.
Bio stocks were also weak. Samsung Biologics fell 4 percent to 1,725,000 won following its spin-off of Samsung Bioepis. Shares of Samsung Epis Holdings — newly listed after the spin-off — plunged 21.1 percent to 482,000 won.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was closed on Monday for the substitute holiday for Labor Thanksgiving Day.
Taiwan’s TAIEX rose 0.6 percent to 26,588.
Chip stocks were largely subdued. TSMC traded at 1,385 Taiwan dollars ($44.1), little changed from last week. MediaTek was also steady at 1,145 Taiwan dollars. Hon Hai Precision Industry slipped 0.9 percent to 223 Taiwan dollars as concerns over an AI bubble persisted.
Component makers fared better. Delta Electronics — a major supplier of power electronics and power conversion systems — rose 0.67 percent to 901 Taiwan dollars.
Across Greater China, markets were mixed. The Shanghai Composite Index edged down 0.1 percent to 3,830, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 1 percent to 25,487, supported by a rebound in tech shares. Xiaomi climbed 2 percent to 39 Hong Kong dollars ($5).
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