By Karim Hammam
Asian shares mostly advanced Thursday after U.S. stocks rallied following the midterm elections, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average surging more than 3% as Republicans lost sole control of Washington.
Chipmakers Drag South Korea, Japan
South Korea's Kospi tumbled 3.5% to 5,484.38, led by heavy selling in semiconductor giants. Samsung Electronics fell 5.7% and SK Hynix dropped 7.4%. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.5% to 61,914.53, with SoftBank Group down 5.3%, Tokyo Electron off 7.7% and Advantest plunging 9.4%. Taiwan's Taiex lost 1.6%.
Chinese, Hong Kong, Australian Markets Rise
Markets less exposed to artificial intelligence climbed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 2.8% to 24,597.59, the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.1%, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.9% to 9,003.40.
U.S. Election Impact on Sectors
Wall Street's broad rally Wednesday saw the S&P 500 gain 1.6%, the Dow add over 1,500 points and the Nasdaq rise 1.4%. Investors generally prefer split government, which reduces the risk of transformative economic changes. However, shares tied to Donald Trump's media company fell 24.5%, while Elon Musk's Tesla and SpaceX dropped 3.3% and 3.8% respectively. Defense contractors declined on expectations of reduced military spending, with Lockheed Martin down 6.9%, Northrop Grumman off 4.5% and General Dynamics down 2.6%. Renewable energy stocks rose, with First Solar up 4.6% and Enphase Energy up 3.7%.
Oil and Currency Moves
Brent crude plunged 8.7% to $94.62 a barrel, its lowest in two months, pressuring energy majors ExxonMobil (-4.6%) and ConocoPhillips (-5.2%). Early Thursday, Brent traded at $93.91 and U.S. benchmark at $87.27. The dollar slipped to 157.96 yen from 158.41, while the euro rose to $1.1256 from $1.1228.
