BENGALURU: South Korean stocks settled higher on Thursday following a volatile session that dragged them to seven-week lows, while Malaysia’s currency and equities held steady after the central bank kept its interest rate unchanged as widely expected.
The tech-heavy South Korean benchmark KOSPI ended 0.5 percent higher on a chip-stock rebound after swinging between gains and losses. Its previous session’s fall, amid a tech share slide, marked a 20 percent decline from a record close on June 22 that confirmed a bear market.
Despite this, the South Korean index is still the top global market with a nearly 73 percent gain this year on a blistering rally in AI-linked stocks.
On Thursday, global markets contended with renewed hostilities in the Middle East after US President Donald Trump said an interim agreement to end the Iran war was “over”, followed by fresh attacks and retaliation between the two sides.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Asia gauge fell 0.4 percent. Equities in the Philippines fell 0.8 percent, while those in Indonesia and Thailand gained 0.3 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
In Southeast Asia, Singaporean stocks rose as much as 1.3 percent to scale a record high for a fifth consecutive session, with banks OCBC, UOBH and DBS gaining between 1.3 percent and 2.8 percent.
Among currencies in the region, MSCI gauge of currencies in the emerging markets fell 0.3 percent. The South Korean won held firm at 1,508.9 a dollar. Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun Song said that he sees a strong likelihood of the won appreciating, given robust economic fundamentals. However, Indonesian rupiah weakened to 18,095, approaching its record low of 18,190 per dollar.
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