KOSPI Rebounds Over 3% as SK Hynix Surges Over 5%; SoftBank Drops Over 4%

TradingKey - South Korea's KOSPI surges 3.07% in a strong V-shaped reversal, Samsung and SK Hynix jump over 3%–5%, while Japanese stocks open lower with dip-buying support.

During Asian trading hours on November 4, Japanese and South Korean stock markets delivered strikingly divergent opening and intraday performances after enduring extreme risk aversion and a bloodbath in chip stocks ahead of the U.S. midterm election voting in recent days. South Korea's stock market staged a powerful surge at the open, driven by strong short covering and rebounding momentum during the early vote-counting phase; meanwhile, Japan's stock market, returning from a holiday closure the previous day, adopted a defensive stance with a slight lower opening in morning trade.

South Korea's KOSPI index opened higher and moved continuously upward, surging 3.07% to temporarily trade at 5,649.03 points; Samsung Electronics rose 3.19%, reclaiming the 220,000 mark to stand at 226,500 won; SK Hynix jumped 5.15%, retaking the key 1,400,000 level to trade at 1,470,000 won.

KOSPI Index Chart, Source: TradingView

Japanese stocks came under pressure, with the Nikkei 225 Index falling 1.1% to temporarily trade at 62,386.83 yen; Kioxia dropped 2.42% to 11,070 yen; SoftBank fell 4.26% to 4,222 yen.

As U.S. tech giants showed signs of stabilizing in after-hours and overnight trading—with the Nasdaq rising 0.83% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumping 2.6%—valuations for memory giants like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix pulled back to highly attractive levels, triggering an influx of short-term short covering and dip-buying that supported a strong rebound in South Korean equities.

Because Japan's stock market was closed yesterday, it completely missed the panic sell-off across Asian equities that day. Although it opened slightly lower today to play catch-up with the weakness in U.S. markets from the previous day, the overall decline remained strictly contained. With no substantive deterioration in the USD/JPY exchange rate or Japanese corporate fundamentals, institutional buying in value and export-oriented stocks in Tokyo quickly stepped in after the lower open, preventing a deeper drop.