Kospi Jumps 3%, Kioxia Surges Over 5%, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix Both Rise Over 3%

TradingKey - South Korean stocks surged nearly 3%, with Samsung jumping 3.37%, SK Hynix rising 4.55%, and Kioxia soaring over 5%.

During Asian trading hours on November 13, Japanese and South Korean stock markets defied overnight declines in the three major U.S. indices, with both staging strong openings against the trend. South Korea's benchmark KOSPI index surged 2.96% to 5,501.08 points; Samsung Electronics opened significantly higher and moved up, gaining 3.37% to 215,000 won; SK Hynix rose 4.55%, breaking through the 1.3 million won mark to trade at 1,311,000 won.

KOSPI index chart, source: TradingView

The Nikkei 225 similarly opened higher and trended upward, rising 1.43% at the open to trade at 61,689.73 points; Kioxia surged 5.12% to trade at 9,776 yen; SoftBank gained 0.75% to 3,766 yen.

Although Jensen Huang's formal resignation as CEO of Nvidia drew intense market attention, overnight U.S. trading quickly digested the leadership uncertainty, with Nvidia significantly narrowing its decline, while rival AMD (AMD) surged nearly 6% and Broadcom (AVGO) rose more than 5%, helping narrow declines in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index. This proved to Asia-Pacific markets that capital expenditure demand for AI infrastructure will not stall due to executive changes at a single company, and capital is flowing across the entire supply chain.