ASIA MARKET CLOSE | Hong Kong Tech Drags Hang Seng Lower as Seoul Rebounds, Taiwan Slides 307 Points

According to the Korea Herald, HKET and Reuters, Asian equities finished mixed on Thursday, with Hong Kong technology names retreating, Seoul rebounding and Taiwan falling sharply. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 slipped 111.16 points, or 0.17%, to close at 64,214.48, its fourth straight decline. A firmer yen weighed on sentiment, with the currency rallying toward 156 per dollar after two sessions of gains. Among chip-related names, Tokyo Electron edged up 0.36%, while Advantest fell 0.80% and Sony eased 0.64%. Seoul's KOSPI rebounded, rising 16.76 points, or 0.26%, to 6,579.48 after opening 1.33% higher, recovering part of the previous session's 3.99% plunge as oil prices eased. Auto and aerospace shares led gains, with Hyundai Motor up 1.46% and Hanwha Aerospace up 2.15%, while Hanwha Ocean jumped 5.49%. Chipmakers lagged, as Samsung Electronics slipped 0.2% to 250,000 won and SK hynix fell 1.05%. Hong Kong stocks reversed early gains to close lower, with the Hang Seng Index down 97.90 points, or 0.39%, at 25,213.31 on turnover of HK$199.38 billion; the Hang Seng Tech Index shed 1.1% to 4,468. Alibaba fell about 2%, Trip.com dropped more than 5% and Xiaomi declined over 2%, while Sino Biopharmaceutical rose more than 6% and HutchMed surged about 14% after a KRAS-EGFR antibody-drug conjugate licensing deal with GSK. Newly listed Shein hit a post-IPO low, down about 8%. Taiwan's TAIEX fell 307.06 points, or 0.67%, to close at 45,857.66, slipping below the 46,000 level as institutional investors sold a net NT$63.7 billion. TSMC bucked the trend, closing up 0.21% at NT$2,390, and MediaTek rose 1.52%, but selling in memory, substrate and PCB names dragged the broader index. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite ended a touch higher at 3,942.09, up 0.02%, snapping a two-session loss; the Shenzhen Component added 0.10% to 13,625.12 and the ChiNext edged up 0.01% to 3,312.54. Combined turnover across the two bourses stayed below 1.8 trillion yuan.