ASIA MARKET CLOSE | Seoul KOSPI Jumps 1.4% to Record on Chip Rally; Hong Kong, Tokyo Ease

According to Korea Herald, HKET and UDN Money, Asian equities closed mixed on Wednesday, with Seoul leading gains on chip strength while Hong Kong and Tokyo slipped and Taipei and mainland China edged higher. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 ended down 126.55 points, or 0.19%, at 65,142.78, easing after recent advances. Chip-sector names were softer, with Advantest off 2.84% and Tokyo Electron down 0.56%, while Sony fell 0.79%. Seoul's KOSPI rose 97.12 points, or 1.4%, to 7,051.64, as major chipmakers rallied on continued AI optimism. SK hynix jumped 3.51% to 1.86 million won and Samsung Electronics closed flat at 269,500 won. Battery makers advanced, with LG Energy Solution up 6.46% and Samsung SDI up 8.3%, while Hanwha Ocean gained 2.32% after being named preferred bidder for a Royal Thai Navy frigate project worth about $500 million. Daishin Securities analyst Lee Kyoung-min said OpenAI's launch of GPT-6 Astra renewed optimism over AI growth. The won firmed to a 23-month high near 1,336 per dollar. Hong Kong stocks eased, with the Hang Seng Index down 42 points, or 0.17%, at 25,274 on turnover of HK$204.95 billion, while the Hang Seng TECH Index fell 0.8% to 4,420. Lenovo rebounded more than 6% and lens makers Sunny Optical and AAC Technologies each rose over 3% ahead of Apple's product event, while Haidilao dropped 9%. Meituan fell 3.47% to HK$77.80 and Xiaomi lost 2.01% to HK$26.38. Taiwan's TAIEX added 77.58 points, or 0.16%, to close at 47,183.36 after touching an intraday high of 47,548.26, with domestic institutions net buying about NT$22 billion. Chip bellwether TSMC eased 0.2% to NT$2,465. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.28% to 3,951.51, extending gains to a third session, and the CSI 300 added 0.30% to 4,572.60. The Shenzhen Component gained 0.15% while the ChiNext slipped 0.14%.