Asia markets reside: Shares rise

SK Hynix shares had been buying and selling over 10% larger after U.S. President Donald Trump introduced a pause on a few of his “reciprocal tariffs,” and a report confirmed that the corporate has overtaken rival Samsung Electronics in an essential market.

The South Korean semiconductor firm was among the many greatest performers amid a broad-based soar within the Kospi index. Its competitor Samsung Electronics was up 5.8%. 

A report from Counterpoint Analysis on Wednesday stated that SK Hynix, for the primary time, overtook Samsung within the DRAM market in accordance with its first-quarter income share. SK Hynix claimed a 36% international market share as in comparison with Samsung’s 34%. DRAM is a sort of semiconductor reminiscence used to retailer knowledge and program code that may be present in PCs, workstations and servers.

A key driver of SK Hynix’s ascension was its dominance in HBM, or excessive bandwidth reminiscence, a sort of DRAM utilized in synthetic intelligence servers. The South Korean semiconductor firm has a 70% market share of the HBM market, in accordance with Counterpoint.

“It is a milestone for SK Hynix which is efficiently delivering on DRAM to a market that continues to indicate unfettered demand for HBM reminiscence,” stated Jeongku Choi, senior analyst at Counterpoint.

— Dylan Butts

China’s shopper costs contracted for a second straight month, whereas producer worth deflation obtained additional entrenched, as Chinese language exporters brace for extra ache amid an escalating commerce warfare with the U.S.

Shopper worth index slid 0.1% yr on yr in March, remaining in deflationary territory after having contracted 0.7% in February, in accordance with knowledge launched by the Nationwide Statistics Bureau Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters had anticipated a flat studying in comparison with the identical interval final yr.

Producer costs fell for the twenty ninth straight month, dropping 2.5% in March from a yr earlier and marked the biggest contraction since November 2024. The Reuters ballot had anticipated a 2.3% decline.

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— Lim Hui Jie, Anniek Bao

Singapore’s 30-stock benchmark Straits Occasions Index surged 5.87% to three,592.77 as of 10.47 a.m. native time on Thursday, reversing course from eight-straight days of declines.

The rise was broad-based throughout industries, with good points led by the financials, industrials and shopper non-cyclicals sectors.

The 4 greatest performing shares on the index had been SATS which rose 8.54%, Jardine Matheson Holdings which added 7.09%, Oversea-Chinese language Banking Company which superior 6.80% and DBS Group Holdings which elevated 6.78%.

Robust good points had been seen in Vietnam’s VN Index, which gained 6.64% and Malaysia’s KLCI which superior 5.05%. In the meantime Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite elevated by 4.88% whereas and the Philippines’ benchmark PSI rose 2.05%.

— Amala Balakrishner

Simmering commerce tensions between the U.S. and China pushed the onshore Chinese language yuan to its lowest stage in near twenty years.

China’s onshore yuan dropped to the weakest stage in practically twenty years with no indicators of let-up in commerce tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

The onshore yuan rose marginally in opposition to the U.S. greenback to 7.3480 as of 10.11 a.m. Singapore time, after falling to its lowest stage since December 2007 earlier within the day.

In the meantime, the offshore Chinese language yuan fell 0.27% in opposition to the greenback to 7.3629.

Different Asian currencies fluctuated sharply on Thursday.

Features within the Japanese yen, moderated to 0.61% in opposition to the greenback to 146.82, after the forex, which is historically perceived as a haven during times of market tumult, hit its strongest stage since September 2024 the day earlier than.

Hirofumi Suzuki, Chief FX Strategist & Head of Analysis Group in Treasury, at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Company observes that the yen is being bought off whereas “shares are being purchased again closely.”

Nevertheless, he doesn’t count on the continued promoting of the Japanese yen to persist given how risky markets are proper now.

Elsewhere within the area, the Korean received fell 0.72% in opposition to the greenback to 1,455.82 whereas the Australian greenback slipped 0.18% to 0.6141 in opposition to the greenback.

— Amala Balakrishner

Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex index surged 9.33% to 19,014.61 as of 9.50 a.m. native time, reversing course from three straight days of losses.

The rise was broad-based throughout industries, with good points led by the actual property, vitality and industrials sectors.

One of the best performers embrace Lumax Worldwide Corp, Shinkong Artificial Fibers Corp and Asia Plastic Recycling Holding, which all elevated by 10%.

The iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF exhibits the index’s strikes:

South Korea’s share common rose sharply on Thursday.

The Kospi index pared good points to five.03% to 2,409.04 as of 10.22 a.m. native time, to its highest stage in every week. The index has risen 0.26% because the begin of the yr.

The rise was broad-based throughout industries, and was led by the autos, expertise, protection and manufacturing sectors.

Among the many greatest performers within the index had been tech giants SK Hynix which was up 11.27%, LG Show which gained 10.8% and Samsung Electronics which rose 4.91%.

Different key movers had been Samsung Heavy which superior 6.21%, Hyundai Motor which added 6.29% and Hyundai-Rotem which elevated 9.36%.

In the meantime, the small-cap Kosdaq was final seen up 4.73%.

— Amala Balakrishner

Japan’s producer worth rose 4.2% within the yr to March, knowledge launched by the central financial institution confirmed on Thursday, underscoring stress from rising uncooked materials prices that add to company ache amid uncertainty over U.S. tariff coverage.

The rise within the company items worth index (CGPI), a gauge of costs that corporations cost one another for his or her items and providers, topped market forecast for a 3.9% enhance and adopted a 4.1% achieve in February.

The entire costs edged 0.4% larger on a month-on-month foundation, the info confirmed.

— Anniek Bao

Japan’s Nikkei 225 share common rallied considerably on Thursday, main good points in Asia-Pacific.

The benchmark surged 8.83% as at 9.25 a.m. native time to 34,508.62, crossing the 34,000 threshold after six days.

For the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Common, it surged practically 3,000 factors, or 7.87%, scoring its largest advance since March 2020. The 12.16% surge for the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite marked its second-best day ever.