Asian stocks rise after Trump hints at Iran war deal

{"text":[[{"start":10.25,"text":"Asia’s technology-heavy markets jumped on Friday as Donald Trump suggested a deal to end the war in Iran could be imminent and the US prepared for a blockbuster listing of Elon Musk’s SpaceX."}],[{"start":23.15,"text":"South Korea’s Kospi benchmark, which has been volatile since the start of the year, rose 7.8 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gained 3.8 per cent. Taiwan’s Taiex, dominated by chipmaker TSMC, was up 2.4 per cent."}],[{"start":40.3,"text":"The rally in Asian markets with a heavy chipmaker presence has been driven by bets that the companies will be crucial to the build-out of AI infrastructure."}],[{"start":49.349999999999994,"text":"Memory chip producers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix now make up more than half of the Kospi after a stratospheric run. Kioxia, Japan’s biggest maker of flash memory, briefly surpassed Toyota as the country’s most valuable company on Friday after rising more than 3,700 per cent over the past 12 months."}],[{"start":71.1,"text":"The Kospi has nearly doubled so far this year to be the world’s best-performing major market for a second year, while the Nikkei 225 and Taiex are up 28.8 per cent and 50.8 per cent, respectively."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":85.25,"text":"The moves in Asia come as Musk’s AI-to-rockets group SpaceX prepares to go public on Friday. They follow a volatile week for markets and a historic deluge of stock sales on Wall Street."}],[{"start":97.7,"text":"The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed 2.5 per cent higher on Thursday, while the S&P 500 gained 1.8 per cent. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks US companies in the chipmaking supply chain, rose 7.9 per cent."}],[{"start":113.80000000000001,"text":"While AI enthusiasm has boosted the markets of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, they have also been hit by uncertainty over energy supplies from the war in Iran. The three Asian economies import much of their oil and gas."}],[{"start":127.50000000000001,"text":"Oil prices fell on Friday after Trump said the final points of a deal with Tehran had been approved by “all parties” in the clearest signal the two sides were close to a preliminary agreement that would extend a fragile ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz."}],[{"start":142.35000000000002,"text":"Namuh Rhee, chair of the Korean Corporate Governance Forum, an advocacy group, said market sentiment had improved on the impending agreement to end the war and expectations that China was likely to step up investment in AI infrastructure. "}],[{"start":157.65000000000003,"text":"South Korea’s Kospi has been particularly volatile, moving more than 7 per cent in three of the last five trading days. Trading curbs have been triggered 24 times this year. For comparison, 26 such curbs were triggered in the whole of 2008 during the depths of the global financial crisis."}],[{"start":176.35000000000002,"text":"“I’ve never seen a market this volatile in my 40 years in the financial industry,” said Rhee. “Market concentration in chip stocks is increasing while market breadth is narrowing.”"}],[{"start":194.35000000000002,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1781241965_1243.mp3"}