Session at a Glance

KOSPI crashes 8% on AI chip rout while Taiwan’s TAIEX surges nearly 5% on TSMC rebound.

Asia-Pacific markets split sharply this week along the AI supply chain. South Korea’s KOSPI plunged almost 4% for the week — with an 8% single-session crash on Thursday that triggered circuit breakers — after Meta’s cloud pivot raised fears that hyperscaler AI spending could cool, hammering SK Hynix and Samsung. Taiwan was the mirror image: the TAIEX surged nearly 5% as TSMC led a fierce rebound, with investors pricing in strong July 16 earnings guidance and broadening AI demand beyond memory chips.

Hong Kong and mainland China posted quiet gains. The Hang Seng rose 1.2% on gaming and consumer strength, while Shanghai edged up 0.4% as brokerage stocks rallied on surging quant fund inflows. BYD jumped 13% in Shenzhen after Tesla’s strong Q2 deliveries lifted the entire EV supply chain. Australia’s ASX 200 added 0.9%, buoyed by gold miners after Northern Star confirmed it met full-year production guidance.

The through-line: markets rewarded companies with visible earnings catalysts — EV deliveries, gold output, gaming upgrades — and punished those exposed to the increasingly binary AI capex debate. Korea bore the brunt; Taiwan captured the upside.

Here are the biggest movers across Asia-Pacific’s major exchanges for the week ending Saturday, July 4, grouped by market — each figure is the stock’s move over the full trading week.

Australia (ASX)

↑ NST +7.63%

Mid-cap · 22.16 (local)

Why: Northern Star confirmed FY26 gold sales met revised guidance at 1.54M ounces, with cash and bullion rising to A$1.26B — shares jumped 6.6% on the update alone.

Pattern: Fundamental catalyst breakout on a stock already riding the gold-price trend — quarterly beat plus sector tailwind from central bank gold accumulation created momentum stacking.

↓ COL -4.63%

Mid-cap · 23.28 (local)

Why: No single catalyst — Coles Group drifted lower on the week amid broader rotation out of defensive consumer staples into gold miners and resources as risk appetite improved.

Pattern: Mean-reversion pressure on a low-beta defensive as the ASX rotated into cyclicals and gold — typical late-cycle sector rotation pattern when commodity momentum strengthens.

Hong Kong (HKEX)

↑ 9999 +12.98%

Mid-cap · 205.4 (local)

Why: NetEase rallied nearly 13% after JPMorgan upgraded to Buy with a HK$295 target, citing a higher P/E multiple on improving gaming revenue growth and dual-primary listing conversion.

Pattern: Analyst-upgrade catalyst on an oversold name trading near 52-week lows — classic mean-reversion setup with fundamental re-rating trigger attracting momentum buyers.

↓ 0939 -3.85%

Large-cap · 7.78 (local)

Why: China Construction Bank slipped 3.9% as state bank stocks faced profit-taking alongside rotation into tech and brokerage names — no company-specific negative news.

Pattern: Sector rotation drag — high-dividend SOE banks lost flows to higher-beta tech and brokerage plays as risk appetite improved, a recurring pattern in modest-rally weeks.

China — Shanghai (SSE)

↑ 600030 +4.36%

Mid-cap · 28.95 (local)

Why: CITIC Securities gained 4.4% as China quant funds drew billions in new inflows with AI-driven strategies outperforming, directly boosting brokerage trading volumes and revenue expectations.

Pattern: Thematic momentum — brokerage stocks act as a leveraged play on market activity, and the quant-fund inflow story provided a specific catalyst within the broader China tech bid.

↓ 601988 -3.47%

Mid-cap · 5.56 (local)

Why: Bank of China fell 3.5% on the same SOE bank rotation seen in Hong Kong — investors shifted from high-dividend state banks into brokerages and tech on improved risk sentiment.

Pattern: Mirror of the 0939.HK move — state bank weakness in a risk-on week is a textbook rotation pattern in China A-shares when brokerage and tech sectors attract fresh flows.

China — Shenzhen (SZSE)

↑ 002594 +13.13%

Large-cap · 88.47 (local)

Why: BYD surged 13% after Tesla reported Q2 deliveries up 25% year-on-year, validating global EV demand — BYD’s own record overseas sales in May added further momentum.

Pattern: Macro catalyst breakout — Tesla deliveries served as a sector-wide read-through for EV demand, and BYD’s independent overseas growth story created dual momentum drivers.

↓ 300750 -0.26%

Mega-cap · 380 (local)

Why: CATL was essentially flat at -0.3% — Tesla delivery strength lifted supplier shares modestly but wasn’t enough to overcome broader battery sector consolidation concerns.

Pattern: Sideways consolidation near recent highs — mega-cap battery names are range-bound as the market weighs strong EV demand against margin compression from overcapacity.

Japan (TSE)

↑ 7974 +8.24%

Mega-cap · 7132 (local)

Why: Nintendo rallied 8.2% on growing investor interest in a valuation discount — the stock is down 45% from its peak and trades at 19x earnings with Switch 2 launch catalysts ahead.

Pattern: Mean-reversion bounce from deeply oversold levels — bottom-fishing into a mega-cap trading well below analyst intrinsic value estimates, with a visible hardware cycle catalyst.

↓ 9984 -0.92%

Mega-cap · 6169 (local)

Why: SoftBank Group slipped 0.9% as the global AI chip selloff mid-week weighed on sentiment — Meta’s cloud pivot and the broader chip rout hit AI-adjacent names across Asia.

Pattern: Macro contagion from the KOSPI chip crash — SoftBank’s AI portfolio exposure made it collateral damage in the spending-sustainability debate, though losses were contained.

Singapore (SGX)

↑ H78 +2.39%

Mid-cap · 7.27 (local)

Why: Hongkong Land gained 2.4% in a quiet week for Singapore — no single catalyst, likely benefiting from improved Hong Kong sentiment and modest cross-regional property flows.

Pattern: Gentle momentum drift in line with the broader STI’s 1% weekly gain — property names tracked the mild risk-on tone without a specific breakout catalyst.

↓ A17U -1.97%

Mid-cap · 2.49 (local)

Why: CapitaLand Ascendas REIT fell 2% on the week with no specific news — REIT weakness reflected a broader rotation out of yield-sensitive plays as risk appetite improved.

Pattern: Rate-sensitive sector drag — REITs underperform in risk-on weeks when flows move from yield to growth, a consistent pattern in Singapore’s REIT-heavy market.

South Korea (KOSPI)

↑ 000270 +12.34%

Mid-cap · 1.52e+05 (local)

Why: Kia surged 12% on the week as investors rotated into non-chip Korean names ahead of July 17 earnings, with strong EV demand signals from Tesla’s Q2 deliveries lifting auto sentiment.

Pattern: Defensive rotation within a crashing index — Kia absorbed flows fleeing semiconductor names, amplified by a pre-earnings catalyst and strong analyst consensus (30 Strong Buy).

↓ 000660 -9.28%

Large-cap · 2.425e+06 (local)

Why: SK Hynix crashed 9.3% for the week — including a 14.5% single-day plunge that triggered KOSPI circuit breakers — after Meta’s cloud plans raised fears of slowing AI chip demand.

Pattern: Momentum reversal on a 272%-YTD gainer — the AI capex sustainability question broke the trend, with forced selling and circuit breakers amplifying the unwind.

Taiwan (TWSE)

↑ 2308 +14.64%

Mid-cap · 2075 (local)

Why: Delta Electronics surged 14.6% as Taiwan’s AI power-infrastructure play — investors bid up data center power supply makers ahead of TSMC earnings and rising MW-scale demand.

Pattern: Thematic breakout in the AI supply chain’s power layer — while memory chips sold off, power and cooling suppliers attracted flows as the next bottleneck in AI infrastructure.

↓ 2317 -0.34%

Large-cap · 240.5 (local)

Why: Hon Hai (Foxconn) was roughly flat at -0.3% despite the broader TAIEX surge — hardware assembly margins remain under pressure even as AI server demand grows.

Pattern: Lagging the index in a semiconductor-led rally — Foxconn’s lower-margin assembly position means it captures less of the AI upside than chip designers and power suppliers.

India (NSE)

↑ BAJFINANCE +5.85%

Mid-cap · 1031 (local)

Why: Bajaj Finance gained 5.9% in a steady week for Indian financials — no single catalyst, but continued credit growth expectations and domestic consumption strength supported the bid.

Pattern: Momentum continuation in India’s NBFC sector — Bajaj Finance is a proxy for domestic consumer credit demand, which remains resilient as Nifty grinds higher.

↓ RELIANCE -1.07%

Mega-cap · 1304 (local)

Why: Reliance Industries dipped 1.1% as the mega-cap conglomerate saw mild profit-taking with no specific negative catalyst — energy margins and telecom competition weighed on sentiment.

Pattern: Mild mean-reversion in a crowded mega-cap position — Reliance often underperforms in weeks when mid-caps like Bajaj Finance attract rotational flows within India.

New Zealand (NZX)

↑ FPH +3.28%

Large-cap · 39.71 (local)

Why: Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 3.3% with no specific news — the medical device maker likely benefited from broad defensive healthcare demand and NZD currency moves.

Pattern: Steady large-cap drift in a thin market — FPH is NZX’s bellwether and tends to track global healthcare sentiment, with low-volume weeks amplifying small moves.

↓ MEL -1.74%

Mid-cap · 5.65 (local)

Why: Meridian Energy fell 1.7% with no specific catalyst — New Zealand utilities faced mild headwinds as global risk appetite improved and investors rotated toward growth names.

Pattern: Defensive sector underperformance in a risk-on week — utilities and yield plays lagged across Asia-Pacific as the growth-over-income rotation dominated flows.

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.

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