Asia Market Wrap 6 October: Nikkei Posts First Close Above 70,000 Since July as Kospi Falls

By The Edge Research Team

The Nikkei 225 rose 1.05 percent to 70,683.98 on Tuesday, its first close above the 70,000 line since 1 July, and every open board on our set but Seoul’s ended higher, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 1.00 percent and India’s Nifty 50 closing 0.98 percent higher at 22,776.10 on the National Stock Exchange’s own board. The Kospi, trading for the first time since Friday across Monday’s Korean market holiday, fell 0.89 percent as the session’s only decline. Brent crude traded at 98.57 dollars a barrel at 10:19 GMT, 1.74 percent below Monday’s written settlement on the December contract.

Tokyo closes above 70,000 with the mainland boards still away

The Nikkei 225 added 737.12 points to 70,683.98, its first close above 70,000 since 1 July on the index administrator’s own daily data, and its second straight gain; the index has added 3.48 percent over the two sessions since Friday’s 68,309.46, on our calculation. The Topix rose 38.34 points to 4,183.56. Reuters tied the advance to a global equity rally extending as investors turned more optimistic ahead of the third quarter earnings season, with a technology led rally carrying the Nasdaq to a record close on Monday, and to markets scaling back the chance of a Federal Reserve increase this month to 22 percent from 71 percent a week earlier after Friday’s soft US jobs report. Goldman Sachs estimates that consensus forecasts imply 27 percent growth in S&P 500 earnings for the quarter, with more than half of that coming from companies benefiting from AI infrastructure spending, as the same report carried it. Mainland China’s boards in Shanghai and Shenzhen stayed shut for the National Day holiday, on our records closed through Wednesday and reopening Thursday.

Seoul returns lower as Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney advance

Seoul’s Kospi turned lower after a higher open to close 62.35 points down at 6,941.39 on its first session back, the only decline on our set, led by technology losses with global bond yields at multidecade highs, per Yonhap: foreigners sold a net 1.75 trillion won of shares, Samsung Electronics fell 1.45 percent and SK hynix 3.69 percent. The change is measured against Friday’s close. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 240.22 points to 24,280.56, extending Monday’s 0.28 percent rise, and India’s Nifty 50 closed at 22,776.10 on the exchange’s own board, up 220.35 points, while the rupee slipped to its weakest in over two months on equity outflows ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s decision on Wednesday, where an increase is widely anticipated, per Reuters. Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 0.66 percent to 5,701.54, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.57 percent to 8,735.70, and Taipei’s weighted index edged 0.22 percent higher to 49,822.55, a fresh closing high that stopped short of the 50,000 line after an intraday peak of 49,968.92, with TSMC’s 0.39 percent rise contributing about 80 points of the move, per CNA, following Monday’s 2.55 percent jump. On the standing rows at 10:19 GMT, Brent traded 1.74 percent below Monday’s written settlement at 98.57 dollars a barrel on the December contract and WTI 1.88 percent below its own at 87.75, after Monday’s declines that the global report tied to resilient Middle East crude exports and an emergency stockpile release by the G7, while gold rose 0.53 percent to 4,178.80 dollars an ounce and the euro recovered 0.20 percent to 1.1243 after Monday’s slide to a 17 month low.

Top gainers

Closing levels for Tuesday 6 October 2026 from the price feed at 10:19 GMT, ranked high to low by change; changes are against Monday 5 October closes as published in our Asia Market Wrap of 5 October. The India row is the closing value on the National Stock Exchange of India’s own index board at the 15:30 IST close. Mainland China’s two boards in Shanghai and Shenzhen did not trade and are not carried, closed for the National Day holiday.

Top losers

Same session and basis. The Kospi was the only index on our set to close lower, on its first session since Friday 2 October across Monday’s Korean market holiday; its change is against that Friday close.

Commodities and currencies

Intraday quotes at 10:19 GMT on Tuesday 6 October 2026, fixed row order as a deliberate exception to ranking; snapshot levels, not settlements, with changes against Monday’s reference levels as carried in the price feed. The Brent and WTI previous values match Monday’s written settlements of 100.32 and 89.43 dollars, as published in our Commodities Wrap of 5 October 2026, on the December and November contracts. Contract months as the feed displays them.

Why it matters: Tokyo’s first close above 70,000 since 1 July came with the mainland boards away, and the rally ran on what sits outside the region, optimism before a third quarter earnings season that begins next week and a Federal Reserve increase this month priced at 22 percent, not on fresh Asian data. That leaves the week’s two regional tests clearly marked: Seoul’s decline on its first session back, and Wednesday’s Reserve Bank of India decision with the rupee at a two month low, before the mainland reopening on Thursday restores the region’s largest boards. Of the 8 indices we published on Tuesday, the Nikkei 225 led at 1.05 percent higher and the Kospi lagged at 0.89 percent lower, on our count.

Outlook: Mainland China’s boards stay shut on Wednesday and reopen Thursday, on our records. The Reserve Bank of India decides on Wednesday, with an increase widely anticipated, and the Federal Reserve’s September minutes land the same day, as published in our Week Ahead of 3 October. Our Middle East wrap follows this afternoon with the Gulf closes, and tonight’s commodities wrap reads the session’s written settlements on the same December and November crude series.

Sources: Nikkei Indexes, National Stock Exchange of India, Singapore Exchange, Yonhap, CNA, CNBC, Reuters, The Edge.

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