Most Asian stock markets rose on Thursday, with South Korea surging to record highs on sharp gains in chipmakers, while Japanese shares traded flat after touching a fresh record peak above 58,000 points amid "Takaichi trade" optimism.
However, gains across the region were capped after strong U.S. jobs data pointed to robust labor market growth, easing concerns about the health of the world’s largest economy but dampening expectations for near-term Federal Reserve rate cuts.
Wall Street indexes closed largely flat overnight, while futures tied to them were little changed during Asian hours.
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KOSPI hits record high with Samsung surging on AI cheer In Seoul, the KOSPI index jumped nearly 3% to an all-time high of 5,515.8 points, extending a rally driven by artificial intelligence-linked semiconductor demand.
Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) soared more than 6% to record highs after a senior executive highlighted the company’s technological edge in next-generation HBM4 (high-bandwidth memory) chips, fueling optimism over its production roadmap and competitiveness in advanced AI memory solutions.
Investors have increasingly bet that HBM4 will underpin the next leg of AI hardware growth, supporting margins and earnings visibility.
Shares of SK Hynix Inc (KS:000660) also climbed 3.5%, riding expectations of sustained demand for premium memory chips used in AI servers.
Nikkei scales historic peak above 58,000 points In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose above 58,000 points for the first time, earlier in the day, marking a fresh record high before paring gains to trade little changed.
The broader TOPIX index also jumped 1.5% to an all-time high of 3,888.94 points.
The rally has been partly attributed to so-called “Takaichi trade” optimism, following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s election victory.
Stock investors have welcomed her pro-growth stance, including policies aimed at supporting domestic industry, boosting defense spending, and maintaining accommodative financial conditions, which are seen as supportive for exporters and cyclical stocks.
U.S. jobs data dims Fed cut bets Data on Wednesday showed that U.S. nonfarm payrolls in January rose by 130,000 jobs, significantly exceeding economists’ expectations, unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 4.3% from 4.4%, indicating continued resilience in the labor market.
The report eased some concerns about an economic slowdown but also dampened expectations for imminent Federal Reserve rate cuts.
Back in the Asia Pacific, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5%, and Singapore’s FTSE Straits Times index gained 0.7%.
China’s blue-chip Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index and the Shanghai Composite index were both largely muted.
Bucking the regional trends, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped over 1%.
Futures for India’s Nifty 50 edged 0.1% higher.
