South Korean and Japanese stocks rebounded on Wednesday as investors returned to semiconductor and AI shares hammered in Tuesday’s rout, though the recovery stopped well short of signalling an all-clear.
The KOSPI was up about 1.5% at 6,123 by 11:30 am in Seoul after briefly gaining more than 2%, while the Nikkei 225 rose 0.61% to 68,193.13 at Tokyo’s midday break.
Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and SoftBank Group recovered some of their steep losses.
Yet foreign investors were already selling Korean shares again, while Japan’s broader Topix slipped 0.05%, suggesting the rebound remained concentrated in yesterday’s biggest technology casualties.
KOSPI rebounds, but foreign investors are selling again
The scale of Tuesday’s fall made some recovery almost inevitable. The KOSPI had dropped 5.46% to 6,035.35, taking its five-session decline to almost 14%.
Samsung lost 7.4% and SK Hynix sank 10.1% as concerns over Chinese memory competition collided with broader doubts about AI valuations.
Samsung was up more than 2% late Wednesday morning, with SK Hynix gaining about 1.5%. But the flow picture weakened quickly.
Foreign investors, initially buyers, had turned net sellers of roughly 334 billion won by 11:30 am, even as institutions supported the market.
Kiwoom Securities analyst Han Ji-young told MoneyToday that past five-session declines of more than 10% have typically produced stronger medium-term rebounds.
Kiwoom’s analysis showed average gains of 3.2% after 20 sessions and 8.2% after 60. Han nevertheless said a durable recovery requires renewed confidence in longer-term earnings.
That distinction matters because the CXMT issue has not disappeared. The Chinese memory maker says it has made progress on a denser 4F² DRAM architecture and plans a server-memory product using the design by year-end.
Nikkei rises, but the recovery is narrowly concentrated
The Nikkei’s rebound is similarly selective. SoftBank, Advantest and other AI-linked names recovered after the benchmark’s four-session slide, which had wiped more than 2,900 points from the index.
The Nikkei’s official morning close was 68,193.13, up 415.61 points.
But the Topix was fractionally lower. That divergence matters because the price-weighted Nikkei can be moved disproportionately by high-priced technology stocks.
The regional picture was also mixed. Hong Kong edged higher and Shanghai was broadly flat, while Australia’s ASX 200 fell around 0.7%. Taiwanese technology shares also recovered after Tuesday’s sell-off.
US CPI will decide whether the rebound has room to run
The next test is macro rather than semiconductor-specific.
The US 10-year Treasury yield was around 5.22% ahead of September CPI, after easing from recent highs. Economists expect headline inflation of 3.6% year on year and a 0.2% monthly increase in core prices.
Brent crude was meanwhile back around $106.60, keeping energy-driven inflation risk alive.
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