TradingKey - In the early Asian trading session on July 27, Japanese and South Korean stock markets attempted a recovery after experiencing a sharp correction in the previous trading session.
The South Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) opened 1.7% higher, touching a high of 6,806.27 points, before paring some gains to trade up 1.28% at 6,776.47 points as of press time.
Source: TradingView
Japanese stocks also fluctuated after opening higher, with the Nikkei 225 Index opening up 0.86% and ticking up 0.06% to temporarily stand at 64,651.98 points as of press time.
The South Korean semiconductor sector led the rebound, with SK Hynix rising by 31,000 won to 1,875,000 won (approx. $1,350), and Samsung Electronics advancing 2.61% to 256,000 won (approx. $185).
Japanese tech stocks diverged, with SoftBank Group trading flat at 5,474 yen (approx. $33.5), while Kioxia remained under pressure, dropping 4.71% to 53,370 yen (approx. $327), extending its recent weakness.
The main catalyst behind the recovery of South Korean chip stocks was a series of announcements regarding AI industry partnerships. South Korean presidential advisor Kim Yong-bum revealed last weekend that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will sign long-term memory chip supply agreements with several U.S. tech giants, including Nvidia, with a total value of up to $950 billion.
Among these, SK Hynix plans to supply long-term memory chips worth $750 billion, while Samsung Electronics will supply chip products worth $200 billion to Broadcom.
Meanwhile, SK Group announced a long-term strategic partnership with Nvidia totaling over $500 billion, covering AI factories, AI cloud infrastructure, and next-generation HBM memory chips. It also plans to build an AI computing center with a total capacity of 2GW in South Korea, with the first AI factory expected to commence operations in 2027.
The AI investment boom also spread to South Korean internet firms, with Naver disclosing that Nvidia will subscribe to $1 billion worth of the company's newly issued shares, and that the two parties will engage in capital cooperation centered on the construction of next-generation data centers. Spurred by the positive news, Naver's stock price surged 7.71%, becoming one of the strongest-performing blue-chip stocks in the South Korean market.
However, overall market risk appetite has yet to fully recover. In the previous trading session, U.S. stock markets diverged, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.46%, the S&P 500 Index ticking up 0.05%, the Nasdaq Composite Index falling 0.64%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index tumbling 4.25%, with the memory chip and optical communication sectors generally under pressure.
On the geopolitical front, market sentiment eased somewhat. Reuters quoted an Iranian source as saying that as long as the U.S. halts military operations, Iran will also stop its military response, though Tehran remains cautious of Washington's stance.
Meanwhile, U.S. media reported that U.S. President Trump has ordered the suspension of a planned new round of military operations against Iran, signaling a de-escalation of the recently intensifying Middle East tensions and to some extent easing safe-haven pressures in global markets.
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