ASIA MIDDAY MOVES | Chip and Optical Names Lift Korea, Taiwan and mainland China as Hong Kong Holds Flat Before Fed

According to HKET, Sina Finance and Ming Pao, Asian equities were mostly firmer at midday, with semiconductor and optical-communication names leading gains as investors awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate decision and spot gold traded back above $4,300 an ounce. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 turned higher in the afternoon session, up 335.03 points, or 0.53%, at 63,819.13 as of 04:33 UTC. Chip-equipment makers advanced, with Tokyo Electron up 1.36% at 51,340 and Advantest up 1.26% at 30,540, while Sony eased 0.32%. Seoul's KOSPI added 81.78 points, or 1.23%, to 6,709.04 as of 04:33 UTC, supported by chipmakers. Samsung Electronics rose 1.91% to 253,250 won and SK Hynix gained 2.96% to 1,740,000 won. Hong Kong stocks were little changed by the midday break, with the Hang Seng Index up 30.11 points, or 0.12%, at 24,697.35 on turnover of HK$95.65 billion; the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 0.87% to 4,328. Lenovo climbed about 7% and SMIC about 5%, Zhongji Innolight advanced more than 8% and Zhipu ended an 11-session losing streak with a gain of over 8%, while CATL fell more than 3%, Tencent slipped 0.9% and Alibaba eased 0.4%. Taiwan's TAIEX rose 372.76 points, or 0.82%, to 45,884.25 as of 04:33 UTC, led by optical and DRAM names. MediaTek gained 3.84% to NT$4,600 and Largan advanced more than 5%, while TSMC edged up 0.21% to NT$2,390 after completing its dividend ex-date fill. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.57% to 3,886.48 at the midday close, the Shenzhen Component gained 1.42% to 13,476.85 and the ChiNext Index rose 2.35% to 3,324.36, with the STAR 50 up 4.50% at 1,621.75 as semiconductor-materials and optical-fiber shares led broad gains.