(July 14): Asian emerging market shares pared some losses from earlier to inch higher on Tuesday as oil prices jumped after the US reimposed its on Iran, while South Korean shares ended higher after hitting an 11-week low.
The MSCI EM Asia index rose 0.1% after falling as much as 2.5% to its lowest since May 4, as the United States carried out a third straight night of strikes on Iran, lifting oil prices, while President Donald Trump proposed a 20% fee for ships using the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices climbed nearly 3% to a one-month high, and are now at their highest level since the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to end the war on June 17.
South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index ended 0.7% higher after tumbling as much as 5.3% to its lowest since late April. SK Hynix, the world’s leading AI memory chipmaker, which fell as much as 9.1% to a near 10-week low and weighed on the benchmark, ended 3.7% higher.
Duncan Wrigley, chief China+ economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics attributed the prompt recovery in SK Hynix and the Kospi index to the South Korean government raising its 2026 forecast to a five-year high of 3%, on the back of a global semiconductor boom.
“Foreign investors seem to be buying, suggesting they thought the steep decline was overdone. Unwinding of leveraged ETFs could be triggering an overshoot,” added Wrigley.
The tech-heavy Kospi, which has shed nearly 25% from its record high close in June, still remains one of the best-performing indices in the region, up nearly 63% so far this year.
Stocks in Taiwan plunged as much as 3.8% to a more than one-month low, as TSMC shares fell 2.1% to their lowest in two weeks.
In Jakarta, stocks advanced slightly to notch a three-week high, while the rupiah strengthened to 18,095 per US dollar.
The country’s central bank will continue its efforts to stabilise its currency, its deputy governor said on Monday, after S&P affirmed the country’s sovereign credit ratings, saying the fiscal strains could be temporary.
Among other regional stocks, equities in Thailand fell over 1%. Singapore stocks pared earlier losses and rose as much as 0.6%, scaling a record high for the eighth consecutive session.
Malaysian stocks rose as much as nearly 1% to a over a three-week high.
Regional currencies were largely mixed: the South Korean won appreciated 0.8% as much as to a nine-week high of 1,486.30 per dollar.
Malaysia’s ringgit fell as much as 0.3% to 4.080 a dollar, while currencies in Singapore and Taiwan were muted. The Philippine peso weakened as much as 0.2% to a five-week low of 61.689.
Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja
