Asia report: Tech sector rebound, China data lift markets higher

(Sharecast News) - A strong performance from regional tech stocks gave Asian equity markets a big boost on Tuesday, helped by a positive reaction to quarterly earnings from SoftBank and TSMC, along with stronger-than-expected Chinese trade data.

South Korea and Japan were leading gains as technology shares rebounded from last week's heavy sell-off, while falling oil prices helped ease concerns about inflation.

Sentiment was also lifted by strong gains on Wall Street overnight, where the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 rose 2.7% and 2.3%, respectively, as investors returned to beaten-down tech stocks ahead of the latest US inflation figures.

Seoul's Kospi was the region's strongest performer, surging 4.4% after losing over 12% since the start of November. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped 2.9% following a 9% decline since the start of November.

Taiwan's Taiex climbed 2.5%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.1%.

Chinese markets recorded more modest advances, with the Shanghai Composite up around 0.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng up around 0.4%

In equity moves, tech investor SoftBank Group surged 14%, rebounding from recent steep declines even as the company reported an unexpected JPY1.115trn quarterly loss following writedowns relating to US AI data centre projects.

Semiconductor stocks were also firmly higher, with Japan's Tokyo Electron, Advantest and Kioxia climbing strongly, along with South Korean heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics.

In Taiwan, TSMC reported a 60% year-on-year jump in October revenue to TWD586.89bn, representing a 15% increase from September, as the world's largest contract chipmaker continued to benefit from demand for advanced semiconductors.

Over in China, investors digested official trade figures showing that Chinese exports jumped 35.2% year-on-year in October, while imports rose 41.6%, pushing the country's cumulative trade surplus for 2026 above $1trn.

Driving demand was the global artificial intelligence boom, with exports of semiconductors soaring 137.1% and automatic data processing machine rocketing 114.7%. That helped offset a marked slowdown in growth in auto exports, to 37.6% from 62% in September.

Lynn Song, chief economist, Greater China, at ING, said: "We remain on pace for China's surplus to reach a new record high by year-end. Strong external demand has been a major driver of China's economic growth in 2026, helping offset soft domestic demand as consumption and investment disappoint."