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World Shares Higher Friday 07/31 05:25
South Korea's Kospi index jumped nearly 18% on Friday, tracking gains on
Wall Street as artificial intelligence-related stocks bounced back after losses
earlier this week.
BANGKOK (AP) -- South Korea's Kospi index jumped nearly 18% on Friday,
tracking gains on Wall Street as artificial intelligence-related stocks bounced
back after losses earlier this week.
U.S. futures edged 0.5% higher and oil prices slipped more than 1%.
The Kospi surged at the open and then wavered, eventually rocketing up 17.9%
to 6,695.45, its largest single day gain ever. Shares of South Korean
technology giant Samsung Electronics surged 28%, while memory chipmaker SK
Hynix soared 30%.
Despite its big jump Friday, the Kospi remains well below the peak of over
9,000 that it hit in June. It had shed more than 17% in the previous three days
as investors dumped technology stocks in part over worries about an AI bubble
and rising competition from chipmaking and AI rivals in China. The benchmark's
previous largest single day gain, of nearly 12%, was in October 2008 during the
global financial crisis.
The rebound followed Microsoft's report Thursday of stronger than expected
profits for the last quarter, which were taken as a signal that big spending on
AI is translating into profits. Microsoft's shares soared 15.5% for its best
day in nearly 18 years.
Traders flooded back into the market to snap up shares in tech companies
that had recently swooned over doubts that the huge investments will yield
adequate returns.
European shares also advanced in early trading Friday. Germany's DAX rose 1%
to 25,870.09, while the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 1% to 8,570.48. Britain's FTSE
picked up 0.8% to 10,983.31.
In other Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 climbed 4% to 64,362.02.
Multinational investment holding company and OpenAI-investor SoftBank Group
jumped 13.8%, while chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron rose 6.2%.
"The market went from throwing AI stocks overboard to fighting for the
remaining seats before most traders had finished writing the obituary," Stephen
Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
The dollar bounced back after falling sharply against the Japanese yen
overnight, gaining 0.5% to 160.28 yen. Regulators in Japan and the U.S. were
suspected of intervening in the market after weeks of the dollar trading above
160 yen, near 40-year highs.
Japan's Nikkei financial newspaper said the intervention was coordinated,
with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York conducting what is known as a "rate
check" where it asks various banks to provide exchange-rate quotes for currency
trades.
Officials from both sides refrained from comment on the matter.
As expected, the Bank of Japan opted to keep interest rates unchanged Friday
as it wrapped up a policymaking meeting. Analysts said officials may have
stepped into the markets to limit speculative moves linked to the central
bank's decisions.
"Intervention in support of the yen may not work any better now than it has
previously, but the persistence of the Japanese authorities suggests to us that
the yen will remain around the 160 level this year before staging a more
sustained rebound next year," Jonas Golterman of Capital Economics said in a
commentary.
The Federal Reserve likewise kept its benchmark rate unchanged at its policy
meeting this week. A gap between interest rate levels in Japan and the U.S. has
been a key factor behind the yen's weakness.
The euro fell to $1.1509 from $1.1524.
Taiwan's Taiex surged 8%, helped by a 10% jump for chipmaker TSMC.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1%, to 8,976.80.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged 0.1% higher, to 25,884.83, while the Shanghai
Composite index advanced 0.7% to 3,832.26.
An official survey showed China's factory activity slowed in July, the first
contraction in five months. Some analysts believe China's weak domestic demand
and recent typhoons helped to slow manufacturing activity. The economy grew at
its slowest annual pace in more than three years in the April-June quarter, at
4.3%.
A meeting of China's powerful Politburo a day earlier had little impact on
market levels Friday since no major policy changes were announced.
Oil prices traded lower as tensions between the U.S. and Iran kept the
Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil transport, largely closed.
Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 1.4% to $85.70 per barrel.
It was trading near $72 a barrel before the Iran war began in late February.
Benchmark U.S. crude shed 1.6% to $82.23 per barrel.
ING commodities analysts said Friday that there were signs of increased oil
flows through the Strait of Hormuz, which helped ease the pressure on oil
supplies, with ship tracking data showing tanker crossings rose slightly,
though the numbers were still limited.
On Thursday, Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 gained 1.7%. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average added 1.2% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite rose
2.8%.
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