Japan, South Korea Stocks Open Higher as Kospi Jumps Nearly 5%, Rebounding 30% From July Low; SK Hynix Surges Over 7%, Kioxia Gains Nearly 7%

TradingKey - On August 13, Japanese and South Korean stock markets continued their strong morning performance. Samsung rose over 5%, SK Hynix gained more than 7%, Kioxia jumped nearly 7%, and SoftBank climbed over 2%.

South Korea's KOSPI Index opened 3% higher at 6,773.92 points, rebounding about 30% from its intraday low of 5,262.77 points on July 29, before widening its gain to 4.8% intraday to trade at 6,895.07 points, indicating a clear improvement in market sentiment.

Source: TradingView

Japan's Nikkei 225 Index also opened higher at 68,033.17 points, up 0.75%, with intraday gains widening further to 1.82%.

The semiconductor sector continued to be the main driver of gains in Asian markets. In South Korea, Samsung Electronics rose 5.48% in morning trading to 269,500 Korean won (about $191); SK Hynix gained 7.18% to 1,612,000 Korean won. In the Japanese market, memory chipmaker Kioxia rose 6.68% to 53,200 Japanese yen (about $334); SoftBank Group gained 2.16% to 5,639 Japanese yen.

This rally in tech stocks was closely tied to overnight U.S. market performance, with the S&P 500 up 0.26% and the Nasdaq Composite Index gaining 0.54%. Among them, the AI and memory chip sectors performed prominently, with SK Hynix (SKHY) surging 9.01%, Seagate Technology (STX) rising 7.03%, SanDisk (SNDK) jumping 5.76%, Micron Technology (MU) gaining 4.92%, Western Digital (WDC) climbing 3.69%, with these strong performances further boosting risk appetite for Asian semiconductor stocks.

Meanwhile, data released by the U.S. Department of Labor showed that July CPI rose 3.4% year-on-year, lower than 3.5% in June and matching market expectations; it rose 0.1% month-on-month, also meeting expectations. Inflation did not show a noticeable heating up beyond expectations, reducing market concerns about the Federal Reserve maintaining its tight stance in the short term.