Session at a Glance

Hang Seng surges 3.5% on targeted Beijing support while yen strength drags Nikkei down nearly 4%.

A global bond rout dominated the week as US 10-year Treasury yields climbed to their highest since early 2025, driven by persistent inflation fears, ballooning deficits, and surging AI-related corporate debt issuance. Rising oil prices on the back of new Iran sanctions added to the pressure, weighing on risk appetite across most Asia-Pacific markets.

Hong Kong was the clear outlier, with the Hang Seng rallying 3.5% as buyers stepped in even after Beijing signalled targeted stimulus rather than a large-scale package — a sign that investor confidence in China’s growth path is firming without needing a policy bazooka. Japan’s Nikkei fell nearly 4%, the week’s worst performer, as a coordinated yen intervention pushed the currency to three-month highs and hammered exporters. South Korea’s KOSPI bucked the regional trend, lifted by a memory-chip rally after SK Hynix announced a record buyback and $38 billion in new fab investment.

The through-line: markets with domestic catalysts (HK targeted stimulus, Korea memory capex) outperformed, while export-heavy or bond-sensitive markets (Japan, Taiwan, Australia) paid the price for tighter global financial conditions.

Here are the biggest movers across Asia-Pacific’s major exchanges for the week ending Saturday, August 22, grouped by market — each figure is the stock’s move over the full trading week.

Australia (ASX)

↑ CSL +23.30%

Mega-cap · 168.3 (local)

Why: CSL surged after FY26 results framed a ‘reset year’ — a US$2.6B statutory loss from impairments, but FY27 guidance of ~5% underlying profit growth reset expectations and triggered the biggest single-day jump since 2001.

Pattern: Classic post-earnings gap-and-go breakout on a beaten-down large-cap — the stock had been in a multi-quarter drawdown and the guidance pivot acted as a fundamental reset catalyst, drawing momentum buyers into a low-base setup.

↓ NAB -7.74%

Large-cap · 38.17 (local)

Why: NAB fell after its fiscal Q3 update showed home loan applications down 15% and cash earnings below consensus, raising concerns about slowing mortgage growth even as business banking held up.

Pattern: Earnings-driven mean-reversion from a 17-year high — NAB had been a crowded overweight among Aussie bank bulls, and the mortgage growth miss triggered a positioning unwind that dragged the broader ASX financials sector.

Hong Kong (HKEX)

↑ 1810 +13.27%

Large-cap · 29.02 (local)

Why: Xiaomi rallied ahead of earnings as investors bet on an EV and AI-driven growth re-rating; the stock extended its best quarterly run in over a year despite profit headwinds from rising memory component costs.

Pattern: Momentum continuation within the broader Hang Seng rally — Xiaomi is a high-beta proxy for China consumer-tech optimism and rode the week’s rotation into HK-listed names over mainland equivalents.

China — Shanghai (SSE)

↑ 601857 +5.07%

Large-cap · 11.2 (local)

Why: PetroChina gained as rising oil prices — driven by new US-Iran sanctions and tighter supply expectations — lifted the entire energy complex, benefiting state-owned oil majors on the mainland.

Pattern: Commodity-macro catalyst driving a sector rotation into energy defensives — PetroChina’s move tracked global crude benchmarks higher, a pattern that tends to persist while geopolitical risk premium stays elevated.

↓ 600519 -5.15%

Mega-cap · 1273 (local)

Why: Kweichow Moutai dropped after its half-year report revealed a rare 2% decline in net profit — the first H1 drop since 2014 — amid weak consumer sentiment, anti-corruption campaign pressure, and shifting drinking habits among younger Chinese.

Pattern: Fundamental deterioration on a former consensus long — Moutai has now declined annually for four straight years, and the H1 profit miss reinforces the structural de-rating of China’s premium baijiu sector rather than a mean-reversion opportunity.

China — Shenzhen (SZSE)

↑ 000001 +2.70%

Mid-cap · 11.41 (local)

Why: Ping An Bank edged higher as financials caught a bid from Beijing’s targeted stimulus messaging and steady loan growth, benefiting from rotation into domestically-oriented China names.

Pattern: Modest broad-sector drift rather than an isolated catalyst — the move tracks the wider bid in HK/China financials this week as investors position for targeted policy easing without needing a headline stimulus package.

↓ 000858 -3.47%

Large-cap · 71.19 (local)

Why: Wuliangye fell in sympathy with Moutai’s earnings miss, as the broader baijiu sector repriced lower on weak Chinese consumer spending data and ongoing anti-corruption headwinds for premium liquor brands.

Pattern: Sector-sympathy sell-off — Wuliangye trades as Moutai’s beta shadow in the baijiu complex; when the category leader reports structural demand weakness, the entire peer group de-rates in tandem.

Japan (TSE)

↑ 7267 +5.73%

Large-cap · 1753 (local)

Why: Honda rose despite the broader Nikkei sell-off, as the stronger yen lowered import costs for components and investors rotated into domestic-demand auto names with improving US market share narratives.

Pattern: Relative-strength divergence within a weak tape — Honda outperformed export-heavy peers as a yen beneficiary with balanced global production, a classic sector-rotation signal when currency moves dominate the index.

↓ 6501 -9.90%

Large-cap · 5196 (local)

Why: Hitachi dropped nearly 10% as the coordinated yen intervention hammered export-heavy industrials — the company generates over 60% of revenue internationally, making it one of the most yen-sensitive names on the TSE.

Pattern: Macro-driven exporter sell-off amplified by crowded positioning — Hitachi had been a consensus AI-infrastructure overweight, and the yen spike triggered a rapid de-risking that overshot the fundamental FX impact.

Singapore (SGX)

↑ A17U +0.82%

Mid-cap · 2.46 (local)

Why: CapitaLand Ascendas REIT eked out a small gain as rising bond yields globally pushed investors toward high-quality REITs with locked-in industrial and logistics rental income as a relative safe haven.

Pattern: No single catalyst — broad defensive rotation into Singapore REITs during a risk-off week; the modest +0.8% move reflects flight-to-yield positioning rather than any breakout pattern.

↓ C6L -1.56%

Mid-cap · 6.94 (local)

Why: Singapore Airlines slipped as rising oil prices lifted fuel cost expectations and the global bond rout raised recession fears, both headwinds for travel-demand sensitive carriers.

Pattern: No single catalyst — broad macro drift lower within the regional airline sector as crude prices and bond yields rose in tandem, squeezing margin expectations across Asia-Pacific carriers.

South Korea (KOSPI)

↑ 000660 +8.60%

Large-cap · 1.73e+06 (local)

Why: SK Hynix surged after announcing a record share buyback and a $38 billion investment in two new memory chip fabs, reinforcing its position as the dominant HBM supplier to AI data centres amid soaring memory demand.

Pattern: Earnings-momentum breakout compounded by shareholder-return catalyst — the buyback announcement layered on top of an already strong AI-memory demand cycle, drawing both fundamental and technical buyers into the rally.

↓ 051910 -8.35%

Large-cap · 2.525e+05 (local)

Why: LG Chem dropped as its chemicals segment remained under margin pressure and its LG Energy Solution subsidiary faced ongoing EV demand softness, extending a multi-quarter de-rating in the battery supply chain.

Pattern: Sector rotation away from battery/EV names into memory/AI — LG Chem’s decline mirrors the broader KOSPI split where semiconductor names rallied hard while energy-transition plays lagged on weak demand signals.

Taiwan (TWSE)

↑ 2330 +0.63%

Mega-cap · 2410 (local)

Why: TSMC posted a marginal gain as July revenue jumped 45% year-on-year on surging AI chip demand, but broader tech selling on rising bond yields capped upside and kept the stock range-bound for the week.

Pattern: Fundamental strength offset by macro headwinds — TSMC’s revenue growth justified its premium, but the bond-yield spike created a gravitational pull on high-duration growth names, producing a net-flat outcome.

↓ 2454 -9.98%

Large-cap · 3790 (local)

Why: MediaTek fell nearly 10% as the global tech sell-off hit smartphone chipmakers harder than AI-adjacent names, with rising bond yields compressing multiples on consumer electronics cyclicals.

Pattern: High-beta tech sell-off — MediaTek dropped from TWD 4,210 to 3,790 in a momentum-reversal pattern as the bond-yield spike triggered systematic de-risking of growth names with consumer-cycle exposure.

India (NSE)

↑ BAJFINANCE +0.74%

Mid-cap · 1095 (local)

Why: Bajaj Finance posted a small gain as India’s consumer-lending names held up relatively well amid the global bond rout, with domestic credit demand staying resilient even as IT services peers sold off.

Pattern: No single catalyst — broad sector drift; Bajaj Finance’s modest outperformance reflects defensive rotation into domestic-consumption financials within a Nifty that lost less than 0.5% for the week.

↓ INFY -4.12%

Mega-cap · 1121 (local)

Why: Infosys fell 4% as AI-driven contract renegotiations pressured India’s IT services sector — clients are demanding more output for less spend, compressing margins and forcing a structural rethink of service-delivery models.

Pattern: Structural headwind repricing rather than a single catalyst — the AI-reshaping-contracts narrative is an industry-wide theme that weighs on all Indian IT majors, making this a sector rotation away from legacy outsourcers.

New Zealand (NZX)

↑ SPK +12.44%

Mid-cap · 2.17 (local)

Why: Spark NZ surged 12% after FY26 results showed free cash flow up 18.5% and a 16-cent dividend, with the SPK-30 strategy delivering $40 million in cost cuts and mobile growth offsetting legacy revenue declines.

Pattern: Post-earnings breakout on a yield-plus-growth re-rating — in a week where bond yields spiked, a telco delivering rising free cash flow and a strong dividend attracted income-seeking capital that had been rotating out of bonds.

↓ AIR -2.35%

Large-cap · 0.415 (local)

Why: Air New Zealand drifted lower as rising oil prices and the global bond sell-off weighed on travel stocks across the region, with no company-specific catalyst driving the decline.

Pattern: No single catalyst — broad macro drift lower in line with Asia-Pacific airlines; the modest -2.4% move reflects the sector-wide crude-price headwind rather than any isolated company event.

Reading the Week

The exchange-by-exchange breakdown above surfaces both market-specific catalysts and cross-border themes. When multiple exchanges move together, look for a macro driver (USD move, commodity price, risk-on/off shift). Isolated single-exchange moves tend to reflect local earnings, regulatory news, or sector rotation.

Read next: Asia Pacific Markets · What Is a P/E Ratio? · What Is a Dividend?