ASIA MARKET OPEN | Taiwan Surges as MediaTek Hits Limit on Nvidia Deal; Seoul and Hong Kong Open Lower

According to HKET, Yonhap and the Korea Herald, Asian equities opened mixed on Tuesday, with Taiwan sharply higher while Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo slipped after Wall Street fell on renewed US-Iran military clashes and Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish remarks. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 opened lower, easing about 1% in early trade before paring losses to 66,155.86, down 156.07 points or 0.24%, as of 09:46 CST (Monday close 66,311); the broader Topix bucked the trend, adding 0.34% to 4,170.51. Rising expectations of Bank of Japan rate hikes continued to weigh on risk sentiment, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reported to have urged Japan to raise rates. Seoul's Kospi opened 0.52% lower and extended losses to 6,735.21, down 1.24%, by 9:15 a.m. local time, before recovering to 6,815.59, down just 0.06%, as of 09:46 CST. Samsung Electronics fell 2.31% at the open and SK hynix lost 1.19%, while Hyundai Motor dropped 1.12% and Hanwha Aerospace slid 2.45%; Celltrion rose 0.74%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened down 151 points at 25,415 on turnover of HK$9.49 billion, trading at 25,405.68, down 161.31 points or 0.63%, as of 09:46 CST; the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 0.6% to 4,591. Zhipu AI dropped more than 4% after its interim results before turning higher, while Tencent and Alibaba each fell over 1% and Kuaishou rose more than 2% after a state-backed AI fund injected 1.4 billion yuan into its Kling unit. Shein and Mecmanind debuted flat. Taiwan's TAIEX jumped 656.66 points, or 1.42%, to 46,785.13 as of 09:46 CST, after opening up 48.64 points at 46,177.11. MediaTek surged by its 10% daily limit to NT$4,315 after Nvidia subscribed to $3.5 billion of its exchangeable bonds, while TSMC gained 0.83% to NT$2,425. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite opened down 0.16% and traded at 3,987.46, up 0.03%, as of 09:46 CST, while the Shenzhen Component edged up 0.02% and the ChiNext Index fell 0.1%. Fiberglass, media and building-materials shares were active, while property, agriculture, coal and petrochemical names retreated.