Asian tech stocks rebound after global rout; Samsung up 9%
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Asia's technology stocks traded mixed on Wednesday after an early rebound faded following a sharp global selloff in the previous session.
Shares of South Korean chip heavyweight Samsung Electronics rose more than 4% after jumping as much as 10% earlier in the session. SK Hynix slid 3%, giving up gains from earlier in the day. Both stocks plunged over 12% in the previous session.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are major constituents of the benchmark Kospi Index, which was up more than 3% in early trade before trimming gains to trade 1% lower.
Other South Korean technology names were mixed, with Samsung SDI up 0.7% and Seoul Semiconductor advancing 1.4%.
In Japan, chip-equipment maker Advantest was flat, while SoftBank Group added 0.17%. Tokyo Electron was down 3.36%.
Chinese technology stocks also delivered mixed results. Tencent was up 1.16% and Baidu climbed 1.34%, while Xiaomi and JD.com were down 0.8% and 2.35%, respectively.
Wedbush Securities' Dan Ives said recent channel checks across Asia and enterprise AI demand trends showed "no cracks in the armor," arguing that the selloff in South Korean technology stocks was more likely a pause after a near 100% rally in the Kospi this year, rather than a sign of weakening fundamentals.
The recovery followed a bruising session on Wall Street, where technology stocks extended a global selloff that began in Asia a day earlier.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.2%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slid as investors dumped chipmakers and AI-linked stocks. Memory-chip maker Micron Technology and Sandisk dropped 13%, while Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm each lost more than 5%.
