Asia Market Wrap 21 October: Kospi Rebounds 3.29 Percent on a Chip Rally as China Slips
South Korea’s Kospi rebounded 3.29 percent on Wednesday as chip shares rallied, reversing most of Tuesday’s slide in a single session. Six of the panel’s ten indices closed higher. China’s markets and Hong Kong closed lower, and India slipped on its return from a holiday. Brent crude traded 1.27 percent higher at 110.17 dollars a barrel at 10:05 GMT.
Seoul Wins Most of Tuesday Back
The Kospi closed at 5,735.66 after touching 5,816.43 during the day. It regained 182.92 of the 215.27 points lost on Tuesday. The rise was fast enough that the Korea Exchange suspended program buying for five minutes shortly before 11 a.m., after Kospi 200 futures rose more than 5 percent; Yonhap’s close report called it the first buy-side sidecar in two months and tied the turn to better-than-expected results from the American server maker Super Micro Computer, which eased worries over spending on artificial intelligence. Samsung Electronics rose 5.67 percent and SK hynix 5.81 percent. Foreign investors bought a net 659.96 billion won. The rebound was not broad: decliners outnumbered advancers 487 to 372, and volume was light. The won firmed to 1,325.2 per dollar. Taiwan’s Taiex rose 1.28 percent, snapping two days of declines.
Tokyo Recovers as Japan’s Exports Extend Their Run
The Nikkei 225 added 0.85 percent to 64,621.24, snapping two days of declines, and the Topix rose 0.86 percent. September exports rose 16.7 percent from a year earlier, Ministry of Finance data showed, a thirteenth straight monthly gain, though short of the 20.1 percent increase economists had forecast, per Reuters. Shipments to the United States rose 22.9 percent and those to China 8.6 percent. The trade deficit narrowed to 536.6 billion yen from 1.1 trillion yen in August. Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino of the Bank of Japan said underlying inflation is close to the 2 percent target and financial conditions remain loose. The central bank meets later this month with fresh quarterly forecasts.
China Sits Out While India Returns Lower
The Shanghai Composite fell 0.60 percent, ending a three-session winning run, and the Shenzhen Component lost 0.82 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.90 percent, a second straight decline, with the administrator’s Hang Seng TECH index down 1.26 percent. India’s Nifty 50 slipped 0.34 percent to 22,811.35 on its return from the Dussehra holiday, also a second straight fall. On the exchange’s own figures, 16 of its 50 members rose against 34 that fell, while the Nifty IT index climbed 2.88 percent even as the wider market eased. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.16 percent, and Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.63 percent to snap two days of declines.
Top gainers
| Index | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Kospi (South Korea) | 5,735.66 | +3.29% |
| Taiex (Taiwan) | 46,887.77 | +1.28% |
| Topix (Japan) | 4,043.73 | +0.86% |
| Nikkei 225 (Japan) | 64,621.24 | +0.85% |
| Straits Times (Singapore) | 5,437.99 | +0.63% |
| S&P/ASX 200 (Australia) | 8,831.30 | +0.16% |
Closes of Wednesday 21 October from the exchanges, index administrators and CNBC’s feed, ranked by change against Tuesday’s closes as published. Run lengths are counted against our published closes.
Top losers
| Index | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Nifty 50 (India) | 22,811.35 | -0.34% |
| Shanghai Composite (China) | 3,713.03 | -0.60% |
| Shenzhen Component (China) | 11,704.35 | -0.82% |
| Hang Seng (Hong Kong) | 23,651.87 | -0.90% |
Top losers, same session and basis. The Nifty 50 is the National Stock Exchange’s own closing figure, measured against Monday’s close across Tuesday’s Dussehra market holiday.
Commodities and currencies
| Instrument | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Gold, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | 4,140.10 | -0.06% |
| Silver, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | 57.50 | -0.86% |
| Brent Crude, ICE (Dec’26), dollars a barrel | 110.17 | +1.27% |
| WTI Crude, NYMEX (Dec’26), dollars a barrel | 99.38 | +1.59% |
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 101.78 | +0.08% |
| Euro/Dollar | 1.1219 | -0.15% |
| Sterling/Dollar | 1.3395 | +0.13% |
| Dollar/Yen | 158.15 | -0.01% |
Intraday quotes at 10:05 GMT, in fixed order; snapshots, not settlements; changes measured against a prior settlement run from settlement to snapshot.
Why it matters: One set of results turned the mood. The spending worries that battered Seoul on Tuesday eased after Super Micro’s beat, and the chip-heavy markets led the recovery. The rally was narrow all the same; in Seoul, more shares fell than rose. China sat out the rebound. Of the 32 indices we published on Tuesday, Egypt’s EGX 30 led at 1.94 percent and the Kospi lagged at 3.73 percent lower, on our count.
Outlook: The Bank of Korea decides on rates on Thursday, as our Week Ahead carried. Meta reports after Wednesday’s New York close, the next test of the AI trade. Commodity prices follow in our commodities wrap at midday and its settlements update after the New York close.
How these wraps are prepared: Methodology.
Sources: Yonhap, National Stock Exchange of India, Nikkei, Hang Seng Indexes, Japan Ministry of Finance, Reuters, CNBC, The Edge.
