Asian Markets Wrap | KOSPI surges 3% | Japanese index drops near 600 points

24 Jun 2026 , 06:39 PM

Market Briefs

China Index – Shanghai Composite – 4,110.81 | +0.11%

Shanghai ended the session marginally in the green, recovering from Tuesday’s sharp -1.64% sell-off driven by the tech-led global rout. Progress in US-Iran peace negotiations helped increase traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, easing pressure on global energy supplies and reducing inflation concerns, providing a mild floor under sentiment even as global technology stocks remained under pressure from concerns about AI spending sustainability.

Japan Index – Nikkei 225 – 69,174.75 | -613.63 | -0.88%

Tokyo extended its losing streak for a second consecutive session, weighed down by continued fallout from Wall Street’s technology sell-off. The Nikkei 225 fell further as a technology-driven sell-off on Wall Street weighed on sentiment, with growing concerns over heavy AI spending by hyperscalers driving the decline. Among notable fallers, Fujikura dropped 2.7%, Tokyo Electron lost 2.2%, Furukawa Electric fell 1.7%, Disco Corp slipped 2.2%, and Sumitomo Electric declined 1.6%. The Bank of Japan’s Summary of Opinions from its June meeting showed policymakers generally favoured continuing interest rate hikes, citing underlying inflation moving closer to the 2% target while financial conditions remain supportive — adding a domestic policy headwind to the external technology pressure.

Indian Index – Nifty 50 – 24,021.65 | +197.55 | +0.83%

Indian benchmark indices staged a recovery from Tuesday’s expiry-day sell-off that had pushed the index below 24,000, with buying interest returning as global cues stabilised and oil prices held near recent lows. The Nifty 50 had closed at 23,824.10 on June 23, down 278.80 points, in a sharp expiry-day sell-off that broke below the critical 24,000 level, with IT and metal sectors leading the decline at -2.23% and -3.23% respectively. Wednesday’s bounce reflected a partial mean-reversion from that oversold close, aided by the broader Asian recovery in risk appetite.

South Korean Index – KOSPI – 8,471.02 | +267.18 | +3.26%

Seoul staged a powerful partial recovery following Tuesday’s historic crash, though the session told a complex story of early euphoria fading into afternoon caution. The KOSPI’s surge was driven by Samsung Electronics’ announcement of a 90 trillion won share buyback programme and SK Hynix’s initiation of the listing process for American Depositary Receipts on Nasdaq, both of which catalysed short-covering after the prior day’s devastation. The KOSPI had opened at 8,356.79, briefly extending to 8,543.68 before retreating as gains evaporated, with SK Hynix reversing sharply from early highs while Samsung held more steadily — the recovery more a positioning unwind than a fundamental re-rating.

Hong Kong Index – Hang Seng Index (HSI) 23,412.19 | +75.90 | +0.33%

Hong Kong managed a marginal gain, recovering slightly after Tuesday’s 1.8% decline. Notable movers on the positive side included Tencent, Knowledge Atlas, SMIC, and Xiaomi, reversing some of the losses from the prior session. Sentiment remained cautious overall as investors awaited Micron Technology’s earnings after the US close, which were widely seen as the session’s most critical pending catalyst for chip-related stocks across the region.

 

Key News and Impact on India

1. KOSPI’s Historic June 23 Crash — Circuit Breakers and a 10% Single-Day Fall

• The KOSPI fell 9.99%, or 910.71 points on June 23, the benchmark’s largest point decline on record, with only 46 stocks advancing against 859 decliners as market value fell by approximately 742.76 trillion won.
• The sell-off became severe because the KOSPI had too much riding on a small group of chip-linked names — the four largest stocks, including SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, SK Square and Samsung Electro-Mechanics, accounted for 61.7% of the index.
• SK Hynix-linked leveraged products fell by an average 25.6%, while Samsung-linked leveraged products dropped 24.6%, with the Korea Exchange activating a circuit breaker to halt trading for 20 minutes.

Impact on India: The KOSPI’s June 23 crash is a cautionary case study in index concentration risk that Indian market regulators and investors should study closely. The Nifty 50’s own top five constituents — Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys, and Bharti Airtel — account for a combined weight of approximately 35-40%, meaningfully lower than the KOSPI’s 61.7% four-stock concentration. This gives India’s benchmark considerably more cushion against a single-sector shock. That said, SEBI’s ongoing monitoring of leveraged ETF products and derivatives market activity in India reflects an awareness of the same concentration risk that caught Seoul’s regulators off guard. The KOSPI crash also reinforces the systemic risk embedded in single-stock leveraged ETFs — a product category SEBI has so far kept tightly regulated in India, a decision that looks increasingly prudent in hindsight.

 

2. Samsung 90 Trillion Won Buyback and SK Hynix ADR Listing — Korea’s Chip Giants Respond

• Samsung Electronics announced a 90 trillion won share buyback programme, while SK Hynix initiated the formal listing process for American Depositary Receipts on Nasdaq, with plans to raise up to 45 trillion won — approximately $29 billion — to fund domestic capacity expansion and key equipment procurement.
• These announcements catalysed a short-covering rally in the KOSPI, with the index surging over 3% as investors interpreted both moves as signals of confidence from the companies’ managements despite the prior day’s crash.
• The recovery, however, faded through the session, with the KOSPI retreating from intraday highs as traders remained unwilling to hold positions ahead of Micron Technology’s earnings report after the US close.

Impact on India: SK Hynix’s Nasdaq ADR listing plan — at $29 billion, one of the largest proposed technology listings of 2026 — will draw a direct comparison with India’s own semiconductor ambitions. Micron Technology’s Gujarat fab, now in early production ramp, and the broader India Semiconductor Mission are competing for the same pool of global technology capital that SK Hynix’s ADR will also target. For Indian policymakers, the message from Seoul is that state-backed semiconductor ecosystems need not just capital but also deep liquidity mechanisms — listed instruments that allow global investors to access the upside of domestic chip expansion. India’s path toward a Nasdaq-equivalent listing environment for its semiconductor players is still years away, but SK Hynix’s move provides a useful template.

 

3. Nikkei Extends Losses — BoJ Hawkishness Compounds Tech Sell-Off

• The Bank of Japan’s Summary of Opinions from its June meeting showed policymakers generally favoured continuing rate hikes, with underlying inflation cited as moving closer to the 2% target while financial conditions remain supportive — a domestic policy signal that added headwind to an already pressured equity market.
• Semiconductor and AI-linked names led declines, with Fujikura, Tokyo Electron, Furukawa Electric, Disco Corp, and Sumitomo Electric all falling between 1.6% and 2.7%, as the global concerns about AI spending sustainability from hyperscalers filtered directly into Japan’s chip supply chain.
• The Nikkei’s back-to-back losses of -3.6% on June 23 and -0.88% on June 24 represent a combined two-day decline of over 4.4% from record highs — a sharp mean-reversion from the euphoria of the Iran deal rally.

Impact on India: The Bank of Japan’s continued hawkish lean has significant implications for Indian financial markets through the yen carry trade channel. As Japanese rates rise, the yen carry trade — where investors borrow cheaply in yen to invest in higher-yielding assets including Indian bonds and equities — becomes less attractive. Any sharp unwinding of yen carry positions triggers simultaneous selling across emerging market assets, including India, regardless of domestic fundamentals. The RBI is aware of this channel and monitors yen movements closely alongside dollar movements. For Indian bond markets, a world where both the Fed and the BoJ are on hiking paths is more challenging than one where only the Fed is hawkish — it reduces the pool of cheap global capital available to fund India’s current account deficit.

 

4. Micron Earnings — Asia’s Most Watched Event of the Day

• Micron Technology’s fiscal third-quarter earnings, due after the US close on June 24, were the single most consequential pending catalyst for Asian chip stocks, with the result and guidance on memory chip demand expected to set the tone for Samsung, SK Hynix, and Kioxia heading into the rest of the week.
• Ahead of Micron’s results, Nvidia’s 2026 Annual Shareholders Meeting also took place on June 24, with investors focused on production ramp signals for the Blackwell chip and commentary on the Vera CPU — both seen as critical determinants of AI infrastructure spending direction.
• Blackwell B200 compute lease pricing had fallen sharply from a peak of $6.11 per hour in late May to $4.22 per hour by late June, raising questions about whether near-term AI compute demand was softening relative to the aggressive assumptions built into chip stock valuations.

Impact on India: Micron’s earnings matter for India in a specific and direct way. Micron’s Gujarat semiconductor fabrication facility is now operational, and the company’s financial health and demand outlook directly determine the pace and scale of its India investment commitments. Strong Micron guidance would support the case for accelerated capacity expansion at the Gujarat fab, adding manufacturing employment, technology transfer, and supply chain depth to India’s nascent semiconductor ecosystem. Weak guidance or cautious commentary on memory demand would slow that investment cadence. Indian semiconductor policymakers are watching tonight’s Micron call as closely as any Seoul fund manager.

 

5. Nasdaq Drops 2.21% — Wall Street’s Tech Rout Sets the Week’s Asian Tone

• A tech-led rout dragged the Nasdaq down 2.21% on June 23, as global memory stock sell-offs, concerns over Nvidia Rubin production, and high AI infrastructure costs weighed heavily on investors, creating the external cue that depressed Japanese and Hong Kong markets on June 24.
• The tech sell-off reflected growing investor concern about the sustainability of heavy AI spending by hyperscalers — a structural question about whether the returns on AI infrastructure investment justify the capital being deployed, rather than a company-specific earnings miss.
• The DJI’s near-flat close (+0.14% per watchlist) and the SPX’s -1.44% decline confirm that the sell-off was concentrated in technology names, with traditional industrial and financial sectors relatively insulated.

Impact on India: Wall Street’s tech-led sell-off has a differentiated impact on Indian markets by sector. Indian IT services stocks — TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Tech — are directly linked to US technology capital expenditure sentiment, since their largest clients are the same hyperscalers whose AI spending sustainability is now being questioned. When US technology valuations compress on concerns about AI return on investment, Indian IT stocks typically follow, as their revenue growth assumptions are tied to the same AI infrastructure buildout cycle. The Nifty IT sector’s -2.23% decline on June 23 is the clearest expression of this transmission. For the broader Nifty, the key question is whether the AI spending concern is a temporary valuation correction or a structural shift in the technology investment cycle — the answer will determine how long the IT sector drag on Indian markets persists.