BENGALURU: Stocks in South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore scaled records on Thursday and broader emerging Asia equities hit multi-year highs, fueled by AI-related frenzy and softer US jobs data that stoked bets of another Federal Reserve rate cut this month.
The MSCI EM Asia Index climbed as much as 1.8 percent to its highest level since June 2021, marking a fourth straight day of gains.
A broader gauge of equities in Asia excluding Japan hit its highest level since March 2021.
“Most markets in Asia remain substantially cheaper than their counterparts in the West. That, plus evolving investor mindset about risk exposures, bodes well for most of the region’s stock markets in our view,” said analysts at DBS in a note.
South Korean chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix surged 3.5 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively, after they secured a deal to supply memory chips for OpenAI’s data centres, highlighting how the global race for computing power is fuelling semiconductor demand.
In Taiwan, the benchmark jumped 2 percent to a fresh record, with chipmaker TSMC leading the rally on a 3 percent gain.
Seoul’s KOSPI advanced 3.2 percent to a new high, supported by September exports that rose at their fastest pace in 14 months.
Optimism spilled over to other markets in the region. Singapore’s benchmark gained 1.9 percent to a fresh high, with underlying strength in big banks boosting DBS shares by 2.7 percent.
Malaysia and Indonesia added 0.9 percent and 0.4 percent. The former traded at its highest since early January.
Emerging Asian currencies, however, remained range-bound, pressured by the US government shutdown.
Traders are pricing in potential Fed rate cuts as US labour market data signalled a slowdown, a dynamic that lifted tech and chip stocks on Wall Street and spilled over into Asia.
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