Asia Market Wrap 12 October: Five of Eight Indices Fall as the Kospi Drops 3.65 Percent
Five of the eight Asian indices open on Monday closed lower, led by Seoul, where the Kospi plunged 3.65 percent in a fourth straight decline. Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.76 percent in the day’s strongest gain, Singapore and Hong Kong edged higher, and Tokyo’s equity markets sat the session out for the Sports Day holiday. Brent traded 0.80 percent above Friday’s settlement at 105.56 dollars a barrel by the 10:35 GMT reading.
Seoul’s return turns into a technology rout
The Kospi came back from its long weekend to close 241.69 points lower at 6,384.24, with decliners outnumbering advancers 717 to 166, as a sell-off in technology stocks fed by inflation worries ran through the market, as Yonhap reported it. Samsung Electronics fell 4.39 percent and SK hynix 4.52, with a Hana Securities note pointing to the rebalancing of semiconductor exchange-traded funds and to concern that the two chipmakers may have completed their treasury stock purchases; foreigners sold a net 2.02 trillion won of Seoul shares and institutions 110.65 billion, against 1.47 trillion of net buying by individuals. The won still firmed to 1,335.1 per dollar by the close, from 1,342.8, and the three-year government bond yield eased 6.2 basis points to 3.921 percent. Shenzhen’s chip-heavy board followed the same path, its Component index losing 2.03 percent while Shanghai’s Composite slipped 0.43, and Mumbai’s Nifty 50 closed 0.70 percent lower at 22,363.35 on the exchange’s own figures, with 13 gainers against 36 decliners among its constituents on the exchange’s count.
Oil above 105 dollars splits the region
Reuters’ oil report had the Houthis claiming a Saturday strike on Riyadh’s international airport that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, with further attacks on Sunday, and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reporting fresh attacks on tankers this month, one vessel struck by a drone near Oman’s Sohar and another damaged transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The same report carried Goldman Sachs raising its December Brent forecast to 90 dollars a barrel from 85, with a risk premium it put just above 20 dollars, against supply moving the other way: US President Donald Trump said Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel and announced on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed an energy ceasefire, though Ukraine’s president said he was still waiting to see details; Shell, Chevron and BP were restoring Gulf of Mexico output after Hurricane Isaias made landfall early on Saturday. The markets closer to the commodity trade fared better: Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.76 percent in a second straight gain, Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.25 percent to snap three straight declines, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged 0.25 percent higher for a second straight gain, and Taipei’s Taiex, back from its own holiday, slipped 0.02 percent in a third straight decline measured across the closure.
Top gainers
| Index | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| S&P/ASX 200 (Australia) | 8,783.20 | +0.76% |
| Straits Times (Singapore) | 5,415.48 | +0.25% |
| Hang Seng (Hong Kong) | 24,271.20 | +0.25% |
Closes of Monday 12 October 2026, ranked highest to lowest; the Straits Times ranks above the Hang Seng on the unrounded change. Run lengths are counted against our published closes.
Top losers
| Index | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Taiex (Taiwan) | 49,301.96 | -0.02% |
| Shanghai Composite (China) | 3,797.24 | -0.43% |
| Nifty 50 (India) | 22,363.35 | -0.70% |
| Shenzhen Component (China) | 12,384.87 | -2.03% |
| Kospi (South Korea) | 6,384.24 | -3.65% |
Closes of Monday 12 October 2026, ranked shallowest to deepest against Friday’s closes as published; the Kospi and Taiex are measured against their 8 October closes across the holiday, the Nifty row is the exchange’s own figure, and Tokyo did not trade.
Commodities and currencies
| Instrument | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Gold, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $4,203.70 | -0.30% |
| Silver, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $60.98 | -0.11% |
| Brent Crude, ICE (Dec’26), dollars a barrel | $105.56 | +0.80% |
| WTI Crude, NYMEX (Nov’26), dollars a barrel | $92.64 | +0.86% |
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 102.37 | +0.16% |
| Euro/Dollar | 1.1183 | -0.16% |
| Sterling/Dollar | 1.3234 | +0.02% |
| Dollar/Yen | 158.59 | +0.18% |
Intraday quotes at 10:35 GMT, in fixed order; snapshots, not settlements. The Brent and WTI changes are against Friday’s settlements of 104.72 and 91.85 dollars, as published in our Commodities Wrap of 9 October 2026.
Why it matters: Monday’s map was drawn inside the technology trade: the selling concentrated in Seoul and Shenzhen, while the markets built on resources, banks and shipping absorbed a deadly weekend escalation on the war’s Saudi front and still closed higher. Oil was not absent from the fall, it was the fuel, because the inflation worry that ran through Seoul’s sell-off is the one the crude premium feeds. Wall Street’s five indices all rose on Friday, and the Taiex closed nearly flat despite its own chip weight, so the session read as positioning concentrated in Korea’s chip giants more than a regional repricing. The question for Tuesday is which side Tokyo joins when it returns.
Outlook: Our Middle East wrap follows after the regional closes. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and Topix return on Tuesday from the Sports Day holiday, and the IMF’s World Economic Outlook and Global Financial Stability Report land the same day at the Bangkok Annual Meetings, with China’s September inflation data on Wednesday, as published in our Week Ahead of 11 to 17 October. Tonight’s commodities wrap reads the session’s settlements on the same December and November crude series.
How these wraps are prepared: Methodology.
Sources: CNBC, NSE India, Yonhap, Reuters, The Edge.
