South Korea's SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics surged in Seoul on Friday, tracking a sharp rally in U.S. technology stocks after strong earnings from Amazon and Microsoft revived optimism around artificial intelligence spending.
SK Hynix closed nearly 30% higher, marking its best day on record. Samsung closed nearly 27% higher, also its highest single-day gain. LG Innotek advanced 21.23% and Seoul Semiconductor rose 15%.
Rally spreads across Asia
- Advantest climbed more than 16%
- Tokyo Electron gained 6.24%
- Disco rose 12.74%
- Lasertec advanced 12.74%
- Renesas Electronics added 7.7%
- SoftBank Group, which owns Arm and is seen as a key AI proxy, jumped 13.8%
The rally marks a sharp reversal from this week's sell-off, when semiconductor stocks were hit by concerns over lofty AI valuations and signs of intensifying competition from Chinese memory chipmakers.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) surged more than 8% overnight as investors returned to AI-linked chipmakers following stronger-than-expected cloud results from the two U.S. tech giants. Amazon jumped more than 9% in extended trading after reporting second-quarter revenue that beat analysts' expectations, driven by continued strength in its cloud-computing business. Microsoft had rallied 16% during Thursday's regular session after reporting faster-than-expected Azure cloud growth, reinforcing confidence that AI infrastructure spending remains robust.
Andrew Jackson, head of equity strategy at Ortus Advisors, said Microsoft's stronger-than-expected quarterly results "sparked a huge rebound for risk-on and AI," helping reverse the recent sell-off in technology stocks. He wrote in a note on Friday that investors were reassured after Azure cloud revenue beat expectations while management kept capital spending "in check," noting that a "'spend at all costs' mentality has been punished by the market."
Source: CNBC
