ASIA MARKET CLOSE | Seoul's KOSPI Closes Up 4.6% at Five-Week High on AI Optimism; Tokyo Gains, Hong Kong Slips

According to Korea Herald, HKET and Nikkei-affiliated market data, Asian equities finished mixed on Monday, with Seoul and Tokyo rallying on renewed appetite for AI-linked chip names while Hong Kong edged lower. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 extended its advance, closing up 1,378.90 points, or 2.12%, at 66,399.84, while the broader TOPIX added 22.57 points, or 0.55%, to 4,125.80. Chip-sector names led the gains, with Advantest and Tokyo Electron among the top index contributors alongside SoftBank Group, though Sony eased 2.70%. Seoul's KOSPI outperformed the region, closing up 308.18 points, or 4.61%, at 6,995.39, its highest finish since July 23 and a third straight advance, after OpenAI's new GPT-6 Astra model stoked demand for memory-chip shares. Samsung Electronics jumped 5.68% to 270,000 won and SK hynix rose 8.26% to 1.78 million won. Shinhan Securities senior analyst Kang Jin-hyuk said sentiment was boosted by the new model despite a weak Wall Street tech session, noting the Philadelphia semiconductor index rose 3.38% on Friday. Hong Kong stocks slipped, with the Hang Seng Index closing down 237 points, or 0.93%, at 25,413.12, and the Hang Seng Tech Index off 0.92% at 4,527; the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 1.46%. Baidu dropped more than 4% and Xiaomi lost over 3%, while mainland banks were broadly weaker. Chipmaker Hua Hong Semiconductor bucked the trend, rising about 5%, and PCB and memory-related names strengthened. Taiwan's TAIEX climbed 775.14 points, or 1.67%, to close at 47,326.27, its highest in about two and a half months, led by heavyweights TSMC, up 2.07% at NT$2,460, and MediaTek, which hit its 10% daily limit at NT$4,855; optical-lens maker Largan fell to its limit-down. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite ended little changed, up 0.07% at 3,932.70, while the tech-heavy ChiNext Index gained 3.41% to 3,398.68 as AI-hardware, semiconductor and CPO shares rallied. Combined turnover across the two bourses was about 1.95 trillion yuan.