ASIA MIDDAY MOVES | Chip Selloff Drags Nikkei and KOSPI as Warsh Rate-Hike Warning, Oil Surge Sap Asia; Hang Seng Slips, Taiwan Breaks 46,000

According to Reuters, Korea Herald and HKET, Asian equities weakened at midday Monday as hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh revived rate-hike bets and a climb in oil prices added risk-off pressure, hitting semiconductor names hardest. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was down 1.01% at 65,737.57 as of 12:32 UTC, having tumbled as much as 1,500 points in the morning to breach 65,000 before paring losses; the morning session ended off 1,043.96 points at 65,361.60. Chip-related shares led the retreat, with Advantest sliding about 6% and Tokyo Electron off around 3%, while Sony gained 2.16% and Kioxia edged higher. The yen firmed to about 159.77 per dollar. Seoul's KOSPI trimmed a sharp opening drop of 2.58% to trade 1.60% lower at 6,680.21 as of 12:31 UTC. Samsung Electronics fell about 2.5% and SK hynix eased roughly 2.2%, while refiner SK Innovation jumped nearly 6%. Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song said the won had grown more resilient to external shocks. Hong Kong stocks fell 182 points, or 0.71%, to a half-day close of 25,402.36, with the Hang Seng Tech Index down 1% at 4,557 on turnover of HK$138.15 billion. Mainland banks bucked the decline, as Bank of China rose more than 5% to a record and China Construction Bank added over 3%; Meituan gained 1% after results, while BYD dropped more than 6% following a 21% first-half profit slide and Zijin Mining lost over 5%. Taiwan's TAIEX fell 1.32% to 45,717.85 as of 12:31 UTC, breaking below 46,000 after sliding as much as 745 points at the open on MSCI rebalancing effects; TSMC eased 1.45% to NT$2,385 and MediaTek fell 3.14%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite closed the morning down 0.2% at 3,944, the Shenzhen Component off 1% at 13,812 and the ChiNext Index down 1.29% at 3,380, with property counters weak. Official data showed China's August manufacturing PMI improved.