According to Kabutan, Yonhap and HKET, Japanese stocks extended gains on Tuesday as AI and chip-related shares drew buybacks after a rally in U.S. semiconductor stocks, while WTI crude futures fell after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would not resume attacks on Iran for now. The Nikkei 225 stood at 60,073.44 as of 04:32 UTC, up 1,297.94 points, or 2.21%, back above the 60,000 mark. Tokyo Electron rose 4.72%, Advantest added 2.24% and SoftBank Group jumped 14.62%, while Sony fell 1.77% and Toyota Motor and Nintendo traded lower.
Seoul's KOSPI pared some gains after opening 4.55% higher, standing at 5,179.57 as of 04:32 UTC, up 160.72 points, or 3.20%. Samsung Electronics rose 3.48% and SK hynix gained 4.93%. The Korea Exchange activated a buy-side sidecar for the KOSPI at 9:06 a.m. local time. The Korean won traded at 1,345.75 per U.S. dollar as of 11:20 a.m. local time.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended the morning session up 69 points at 24,518 after opening 172 points higher, with half-day turnover of HK$92.98 billion; the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 0.7% to 4,069. HSBC and Standard Chartered each gained 3%, SMIC rose nearly 4%, and Alibaba fell more than 3% against the trend. PetroChina and CNOOC dropped 3% in early trade as oil prices slid.
Taiwan's TAIEX advanced, at one point gaining more than 1,400 points to top 43,000. The index stood at 42,541.02 as of 04:33 UTC, up 879.32 points, or 2.11%. TSMC rose 1.34% to NT$2,265 and MediaTek added 3.09% to NT$3,840.
In mainland China, stocks posted modest half-day gains. As of 04:33 UTC, the Shanghai Composite stood at 3,662.81, up 0.06%; the Shenzhen Component Index was at 11,229.66, up 0.76%; and the CSI 300 was at 4,058.95, up 0.07%.