TradingKey - South Korea's KOSPI tops 7,000 points; SoftBank surges 4%, leading Nikkei 225 to rebound from a lower open.

During Asian trading hours on September 9, Japanese and South Korean stock markets diverged at the open, displaying a "strong Korea, weak Japan" trend. Among them, South Korea's KOSPI Index opened higher and continued to gain, rising 1.01% to strongly breach the 7,000 threshold, standing at 7,025.01 points. Core tech chip stocks posted modest gains, with Samsung Electronics up 0.17% at 270,000 KRW, while SK Hynix opened up 1.34% at 1,817,000 KRW.

KOSPI Index chart, Source: TradingView

The Nikkei 225 Index opened lower but rallied to edge up 0.08%, standing at 65,321.77 points. Two major heavyweights opened higher and extended gains, with SoftBank shares surging 4.04% to 6,821 JPY and Kioxia rising 1.64% to 58,350 JPY.

Overnight, all three major US stock indexes fell, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) bucked the trend to advance, boosting the KOSPI's opening performance. However, recent volatility in the Japanese yen has led to fluctuating earnings expectations for leading export-oriented manufacturers, creating drag on the broader Japanese stock market and weighing on the Nikkei 225 Index.

Crucially, global markets are closely watching upcoming key US economic data and Federal Reserve (Fed) monetary policy moves. With strong wait-and-see sentiment pervading the overall market, investors generally adopted more cautious asset allocation adjustments at the Asian market open.

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