Asian equities advanced on Thursday, led by a strong rally in South Korea’s KOSPI, which hit a record high as technology and healthcare stocks drove gains. Trading across the region remained thin due to a week-long holiday in China, while Indian markets were also closed.
The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high overnight on Wall Street, supported by strength in healthcare and technology, and futures ticked up 0.1% in Asian trading. Investors looked past concerns over a potential U.S. government shutdown, focusing instead on AI-driven growth.
South Korea’s KOSPI jumped 3% to a historic 3,565.71 points, with chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics fueling the rally. Both companies signed a preliminary agreement with OpenAI to supply advanced memory chips and collaborate on building data centers in South Korea for OpenAI’s massive $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure project. SK Hynix shares soared 11% to a record high, while Samsung gained 4.5%, reaching a near six-year peak. The two remain the world’s largest memory chip producers, with SK Hynix already supplying NVIDIA with high-bandwidth memory and Samsung recently cleared to provide advanced HBM chips as well.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.6% on strong demand for major Chinese internet stocks, Singapore’s Straits Times gained 1.1%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 edged up 0.3%, though the TOPIX slipped after a prior rally. Australian markets also advanced, with the ASX 200 climbing 1.1% as miners rallied. A Reuters report that the U.S. government may invest directly in Australian critical mineral firms to diversify away from China lifted shares of BHP, Rio Tinto, Lynas Rare Earths, and lithium producers Pilbara Minerals and Liontown Resources.
Despite higher-than-expected South Korean inflation data and a sharp drop in Australia’s trade balance, investor sentiment remained firmly positive, with technology and resource-linked stocks leading the charge across Asia.