BENGALURU: Emerging Asian equities surrendered some gains in afternoon trading on Wednesday amid lingering concerns around the durability of the AI rally and competition from Chinese rivals to Korean chipmakers.
Regional chipmakers struggled to find a footing after a global semiconductor selloff, as investors evaluated the impact of higher bond yields on hefty AI-related spending as reports about technological advances by China’s CXMT called into question Seoul’s competitive edge in memory chips.
South Korea’s benchmark equity gauge erased early gains to end the day 0.4 percent in the red, its sixth consecutive session of losses. Samsung Electronics ended flat, while SK Hynix fell 1.7 percent. The KOSPI has shed around 35 percent since its June record high.
Taiwan stocks held on to gains to close up 0.6 percent, after a 2 percent slump in the previous session. TSMC ended unchanged ahead of its earnings on Thursday, where the world’s largest contract chipmaker is expected to post a sixth consecutive quarter of record profit.
Singapore shares held steady, while its dollar edged lower, after the city-state’s central bank kept its monetary settings unchanged in a surprise move.
On the currency front, the Taiwan dollar depreciated by 0.2 percent, losing nearly 1.5 percent over five sessions to trade near mid-August lows.