Most Asian stock markets fell on Thursday, tracking a largely weaker close on Wall Street overnight, while South Korean shares hit fresh record highs after robust earnings forecasts from Samsung Electronics boosted sentiment.
U.S. stocks closed largely lower overnight amid profit-taking after record highs. Wall Street index futures were largely unchanged during Asia hours on Thursday.
KOSPI hits fresh record high on bumper Samsung earnings
Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 1% while the broader TOPIX index edged down 0.4%, extending losses after record peaks earlier this week, as investors took profits and digested Wall Street’s subdued finish.
Mainland Chinese bourses were subdued. The blue-chip Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index fell 0.4%, while the Shanghai Composite traded largely flat.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 1.4%.
In contrast, South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI extended its bullish run, jumping over 1% a fresh all-time high of 4,622.32 points as demand for semiconductor names remained strong.
Shares in Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) jumped after the company forecast record fourth-quarter operating profit driven by booming demand for memory chips used in artificial intelligence applications, while rival SK Hynix (KS:000660) also climbed to record levels on optimism over its high-bandwidth memory business.
Asia stocks subdued; Australia trade data in focus
Australian trade data released on Thursday showed the country’s trade surplus narrowed in November as exports slipped and imports remained firm, a development that may temper near-term growth expectations for the region’s commodity-exposed markets.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported the goods trade surplus contracted to A$2.94 billion in November, below market forecasts, as shipments of key exports such as iron ore and gold fell.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index traded largely unchanged.
Elsewhere, Singapore’s Straits Times Index also traded largely flat, while India’s Nifty 50 ticked down 0.2%.
Source: Investing