BENGALURU: Emerging Asian equities recovered some ground on Friday but remained close to a three-month low, as worries about AI’s unsustainable funding needs drove money into safe havens.
MSCI’s emerging Asia equities index ticked 0.1 percent higher, but hovered near its weakest level since late July. It was on track for a fourth consecutive weekly loss.
South Korea’s KOSPI closed 0.3 percent higher after falling as much as 4.1 percent during the session. Investors cheered SK Hynix’s decision to hold off on a planned US listing for its Solidigm chip unit due to market volatility, sending the stock up 4.4 percent.
The South Korean won strengthened to 1,326.30 per dollar, hovering near a two-year high and poised for a weekly gain of 0.6 percent.
Elsewhere in Asia, Singapore shares edged lower, while Malaysia’s benchmark index slipped 0.1 percent.
Philippine shares extended declines with a 0.9 percent drop, a day after the central bank delivered an outsized rate hike to rein in sticky inflation. The peso fell to a record low of 63.523 per dollar, with a decline of about 0.7 percent so far this week.
Indonesian stocks rose 0.7 percent, extending gains to about 8 percent over the last four sessions, though the index remains roughly 7.5 percent below levels seen before MSCI warned of a possible downgrade to “standalone” status from “emerging market”.
The rupiah slipped to 18,080 a dollar, its weakest level since late July.