Kospi Surges Over 5% Triggering Circuit Breaker; Nikkei Gains 3%, SoftBank Soars 11%, SK Hynix and Kioxia Jump 8%

TradingKey - KOSPI surges 5.55%, triggering a buy sidecar; SK Hynix jumps 8% to break through 1.2 million, while the Nikkei smashes through the 60,000 mark.

During Asian trading hours on November 10, stock markets in Japan and South Korea built on the previous day's bottoming momentum, both gapping up sharply in a strong rebound from oversold levels. Following an outsized opening surge in the KOSPI Index, the Korea Exchange (KRX) activated a buy sidecar curb, halting program buy orders on the KOSPI for 5 minutes.

The benchmark KOSPI index surged 5.55% at the open to trade at 5,297.59 points; Samsung Electronics rose 5.58%, breaking through the 200,000 mark to 200,500 won; and SK Hynix jumped 8.01%, surpassing the 1.2 million mark to 1,227,000 won.

KOSPI Index chart, Source: TradingView

The Nikkei 225 opened higher and continued to advance, surging 3.05% to reclaim the 60,000 mark at 60,557.56 points; Kioxia surged 8.59%, breaking through the 9,000 mark to 9,015 yen; and SoftBank rose 11.15% to 3,779 yen.

Overnight, US equity markets staged a sharp relief rally, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 both surging over 2% in a single day as tech giants posted broad gains. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) rebounded decisively, soaring 6.85%, which directly eliminated the cross-asset liquidity squeeze transmitted to the East Asian chip supply chain and directly led to the triggering of the buy sidecar in the South Korean stock market.

US October CPI inflation data is set to be released on November 10, Eastern Time. If the CPI increase meets or comes in below expectations, it will inject secondary momentum into the rallies across Japanese and South Korean markets; however, if CPI inflation exceeds expectations and drives up US Treasury yields, investors should watch for range-bound volatility that could stall the rebound.