South Korea’s Kospi
The Kospi was up 2.27%, and hit a closing record high of 4,309.63. Heavyweight Samsung Electronics was about 7% higher after the company reportedly claimed that customers praised its high memory bandwidth, or HBM chips.
The small-cap Kosdaq was 2.17% higher, closing at 945.57.
Some Asian markets were still closed for the holidays, including Japan and mainland China.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index
The IPO, which was priced at 19.60 Hong Kong dollars, saw the public offer over 2,300 times subscribed even after the upsize option was exercised, while the international offer was 25.95 times subscribed.
Elsewhere, Singapore’s economy expanded 5.7% year on year for the fourth quarter, driven mainly by strong manufacturing growth in the three months through December. The latest reading is faster than the revised 4.3% growth in the previous quarter.
On Wednesday, Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced in his New Year message that the country had clocked a stronger-than-expected 4.8% expansion for the full year of 2025.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index
India’s Nifty 50Sapphire Foodsplans to merge with rival franchisee Devyani
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.15%, closing at 8,727.8.
U.S. stock futures were looking up in early Asian hours, with S&P futures up by 0.15% and Nasdaq-100 futures climbing 0.12%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 0.16% higher.
On Wednesday stateside, the S&P 500 dipped 0.74%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.76% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.63%.
However, the S&P 500 was still locked in a 16.39% gain in 2025.
The Nasdaq Composite rode AI enthusiasm to a 20.36% advance, and the Dow rose 12.97% in 2025, hindered a bit by its lack of tech representation.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
International: Top News And Analysis
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