Asia-Pacific equities advanced on Thursday, taking their cue from fresh record highs on Wall Street, with South Korean technology stocks leading the rally after a landmark deal with OpenAI.
By midday in Sydney (2 am GMT), Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.1%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.6%, and South Korea’s Kospi 200 surged 3% to a record peak.
Samsung Electronics rose more than 4% and SK Hynix jumped over 10% after both companies announced late Wednesday that they would supply memory chips for OpenAI’s new Stargate data centres.
On the data front, South Korea’s consumer price index climbed 2.1% year-on-year in September, above market forecasts of 2% and up from August’s 1.7% increase.
In Australia, the trade surplus narrowed sharply, with the seasonally adjusted goods balance falling A$4.787 billion to $1.825 billion in August, according to fresh figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Exports declined $3.552 billion, or 7.8%, driven by lower non-monetary gold shipments, while imports rose $1.235 billion, or 3.2%, on higher consumption goods.
Additionally, the ABS monthly household spending indicator edged up 0.1% after a 0.5% gain in July.
“Households spent more on booking airline travel and accommodation services during August. This contributed to a 0.5 per cent rise for Services spending. In contrast, Goods spending fell 0.2 per cent,” ABS head of business statistics Lauren Binns said.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes finished higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1%, the S&P 500 rose 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4%.
In commodities, Brent crude fell 1% to settle at US$65.35 per barrel, its third straight decline and a multi-week low.
Spot gold extended its rally, rising 0.2% to a record US$3,865.53 an ounce.
Chinese equities remained closed for the Golden Week holiday, which this year runs from 1 to 8 October to incorporate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also stayed shut, while India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.9% to 80,983.3.
In Europe, markets also pushed higher, with London’s FTSE 100 up 1% to 9,446.4, Germany’s DAX adding 1% to 24,113.6, and France’s CAC 40 climbing 0.9% to 7,967.0.
