Asia chip stocks rise after U.S.-Taiwan trade deal; Taiex and South Korea’s Kospi hit fresh records

Asian chip stocks climbed Friday after the U.S. reached a trade deal with Taiwan, bringing the island and South Korea’s index to record highs.

Under the agreement, Taiwanese semiconductor companies commited to invest at least $250 billion in U.S. production capacity in exchange for lower “reciprocal” tariffs.

The Taiwan Weighted Index climbed 1.94% and closed at a record high of 31,408.7, making it the best-performing Asian market on Friday.

South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.9% and closed at a record high of 4,840.74, marking its 11th straight day of gains. The small-cap Kosdaq was 0.36% up to 954.59.

Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. rose 2.96% after the company delivered another record quarter, saying it expects to boost capital spending in 2026 to between $52 billion and $56 billion.

Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.32% to close at 53,936.17, extending losses from Thursday, while the broad-based Topix was down 0.28% to 3,658.68. Softbank Group, which has invested in various chip-related stocks, including chip designer Arm, reversed earlier gains to fall 1.01%.

Chip heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix gained 3.47% and 0.93%, respectively.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.48% to 8,903.9, notching five straight winning sessions.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.48% in its last hour of trade, while the mainland’s CSI 300 lost 0.41% to finish at 4,731.87. State-linked semiconductor foundry firm SMIC was up 2.39%.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.60%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.26% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.25%.

U.S. bank stocks also advanced after the latest raft of quarterly earnings. Goldman Sachs advanced more than 4% after its fourth-quarter profit topped Wall Street estimates. 

Morgan Stanley jumped nearly 6% after its wealth management unit contributed to top- and bottom-line beats in the fourth quarter. Both stocks touched fresh 52-week highs.

The rally also came on the back of solid economic data. Jobless claims data for the week ending Jan. 10 came in at 198,000, lower than the 215,000 expected by economists polled by Dow Jones.

—CNBC’s Pia Singh and Sarah Min contributed to this report.