SK Hynix Earnings Ignite Asia Stocks: KOSPI Jumps 6.63% After Circuit Breaker

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SK Hynix Q3 operating profit jumps 632%, KOSPI closes up 6.63% after circuit breaker

Source: JRJ

South Korean stocks surged in heavy volume on Oct 28. The KOSPI climbed more than 6% intraday and the Korea Exchange triggered an upward circuit breaker as the index rose too fast. The benchmark closed at 6,012.44, up 6.63%, its best single-day performance in recent weeks. Samsung Electronics rose as much as 9% and SK Hynix more than 8%, with the two memory giants driving the market.

The trigger was SK Hynix's pre-market third-quarter report: revenue of 104.61 trillion won, up 327.90% year on year, and operating profit of 83.33 trillion won, up 632%, both well above consensus. The company also said it will return about 100 trillion won to shareholders in 2026, including more than 30 trillion won in cash dividends and 20 trillion won in share buybacks — its largest shareholder return plan on record.

Overnight US markets set the mood. On Oct 27 the three main US indexes all rose, with the Nasdaq up 1.18% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up 3.6% for a third straight session; Western Digital gained 6.95% and AMD 5.45%. Meta's near-US$100 billion AI financing plan drew five-times oversubscription for a US$25 billion share sale; Oracle expanded its cloud AI chip cooperation with Nvidia while adding Google TPU and Cerebras as suppliers; and Google DeepMind launched Genie 4, a new real-time world model.

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Asia stocks rally; TAIEX gains 2.04% and TSMC rises 1.04%

Source: Lianhe Zaobao

Asia-Pacific equities rose on Oct 28 as investors piled into technology giants. Taiwan's TAIEX gained 2.04% and contract chipmaker TSMC rose 1.04%, while Seoul led the region with a 6.63% gain and Shenzhen added 1.98%. Singapore's Straits Times Index edged up 0.02%, or 0.88 points, to 5,397.91, with 1.05 billion shares worth S$1.4 billion traded.

Chen Qiuyi, a research analyst at FSM Global's research and portfolio management team, said local shares were lifted by regional markets after SK Hynix's results beat expectations. She cautioned, however, that the rally reflects a short-term improvement in sentiment, and that investors may stay cautious while the Middle East situation and the global inflation outlook remain unclear.

Chen also flagged the Federal Reserve, which was due to announce its rate decision on Oct 28 US time; CME's FedWatch tool showed about a 90% probability of no change. She noted that the latest US non-farm payrolls remained below expectations, signalling weakening job growth and reducing the Fed's willingness to hike further, though the central bank still has to weigh persistent inflation against the risk of an economic slowdown.

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Tokyo's two main indexes diverge; Nikkei 225 closes up 1.08%

Source: Sohu

Tokyo's two main stock indexes moved in opposite directions on Oct 28. The Nikkei 225 average closed up 1.08%, or 685.82 points, at 63,954.19, while the TOPIX fell 0.14%, or 5.66 points, to 3,991.71.

Overnight gains on the Nasdaq and a sharp rally in Seoul on Oct 28 revived risk appetite and drew buyers into semiconductor and other AI-related shares, pushing the Nikkei up more than 1,000 points at one stage. Some investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of domestic corporate earnings, trimming the gain later in the session.

By sector, most of the 33 industry groups on the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell, with insurance, food and oil & coal products among the weakest; glass and ceramics, nonferrous metals and electrical appliances gained.

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Memory chip shares extend rally in China; Junzheng hits 20% limit

Source: Sina Finance

China's memory chip sector extended its rally on Oct 28, with Junzheng shares hitting the 20% daily limit and GigaDevice and Biwin Storage gaining more than 8%. Shares of South Korea's SK Hynix widened gains to 11% during the session, the direct driver of sentiment.

SK Hynix reported third-quarter revenue of 104.62 trillion won, up 32% quarter on quarter and 328% year on year, and operating profit of 83.33 trillion won, up 38% on the quarter and 632% on the year. Both revenue and operating profit were quarterly records and far exceeded the average analyst estimate.

On earnings, companies including Shanghai Fullhan Microelectronics and Junzheng posted solid third-quarter results. Junzheng's net profit attributable to shareholders rose 922.95% in the first three quarters; the company said growth came mainly from strong DRAM demand and continued price increases amid tight supply, while AI servers and other new applications boosted demand for Flash chips.

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Equity ETFs draw inflows for 17 straight sessions, topping 370 billion yuan

Source: Sina Finance

Equity ETF trading stayed active on Oct 28 and interest in CSI A500 ETFs continued to build. E Fund's ChiNext ETF traded 11.6 billion yuan, while A500 ETF Southern and A500 ETF Huatai-PineBridge both traded more than the previous day.

On flows, Choice data show equity ETFs took in a net 23.859 billion yuan on Oct 27, led by CSI A500 products: Guotai CSI A500 ETF drew 2.508 billion yuan, E Fund A500 ETF 1.723 billion, Southern A500 ETF 1.358 billion and Huatai-PineBridge A500 ETF 1.217 billion; Huatai-PineBridge CSI 300 ETF took in 3.295 billion yuan.

Over a longer span, equity ETFs have now seen net inflows for 17 consecutive trading sessions from Sept 28 to Oct 27, totalling 373.378 billion yuan, including 279.37 billion yuan between Oct 15 and Oct 27 — a marked acceleration. Broad-based ETFs were the main destination: Huatai-PineBridge CSI 300 ETF drew 51.647 billion yuan over the period, ChinaAMC STAR 50 ETF 44.679 billion and E Fund ChiNext ETF 42.128 billion.

A Founder Securities note said more than 120 companies have announced buyback or shareholding increase plans since October, with faster implementation after announcement, while stabilisation funds have stepped up purchases across a wider range of stocks. Xu Tuo, fund manager at Yongying Long-term Value, expects A-shares to stay in a consolidation range in the fourth quarter with limited upside and downside, but says structural opportunities remain.

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Ping An's first-nine-month operating profit rises 8.3% to 125.9 billion yuan

Source: Sina Finance

Ping An Insurance reported on Oct 28 that operating profit attributable to shareholders reached 125.905 billion yuan in the first nine months of 2026, up 8.3% year on year, with basic operating earnings per share of 7.23 yuan, up 9.2%. Equity attributable to shareholders stood at 1.044366 trillion yuan at end-September, up 4.4% from the start of the year.

Life and health insurance operating profit rose 5.7% to 87.238 billion yuan, with non-agent channels contributing 36.9% of new business value, up 1.8 percentage points. Property insurance premiums rose 3.5% to 265.215 billion yuan, with new energy vehicle insurance premiums up 21.2%; the combined ratio improved 1.4 percentage points to 95.6%.

The insurance investment portfolio reached 6.83 trillion yuan as of Sept 30, up 5.2% since the start of the year. Ping An Bank posted revenue of 103.1 billion yuan, up 2.4%, and net profit of 39.186 billion yuan, up 2.2%; its non-performing loan ratio was 1.05% and provision coverage 214.75%.

Ping An said it deepened its "AI in ALL" strategy this year. In September 2026 average daily token consumption exceeded 330 billion, more than 10 times the level in December 2025, while token output per unit of computing power rose 509% and cost per token fell 81%.

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Zheshang Securities' first-nine-month profit rises 20.82% to 2.29 billion yuan

Source: Sina Finance

Zhejiang Expressway (00576) said in a filing on Oct 28 that its subsidiary Zheshang Securities (601878.SH) recorded revenue of 7.927 billion yuan in the first nine months of 2026, up 16.77% year on year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of 2.286 billion yuan, up 20.82%, with basic earnings per share of 0.5 yuan.

Hong Kong's benchmark held steady the same day, with the Hang Seng Index closing at 23,094.83, up 53.51 points or 0.23%,

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Anthropic files S-1; a US$2 trillion valuation could make it the largest IPO ever

Source: Sina Finance

Anthropic said on its website on Oct 26 local time that it had filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of Class A common stock. It plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker "ANT"; the number of shares and the price range have not yet been set.

The draft prospectus shows a net loss of US$80.7 billion in the first half of 2026, versus US$13 billion a year earlier, of which US$72 billion came from accounting charges on the revaluation of convertible bonds and other financial instruments rather than actual cash outflows. Computing power and infrastructure spending reached nearly US$9 billion in the first half, up from US$2.3 billion. The company has committed to spending at least US$518 billion on cloud services and computing over the next decade, with total costs potentially rising to US$750 billion.

Revenue was about US$16.3 billion in the first half, nearly 15 times the year-earlier level, while third-quarter revenue rose 45% from the second quarter to US$16.8 billion, a slower pace than in the prior quarter. Some investors value the company at US$2 trillion; if achieved, that would top SpaceX's roughly US$1.77 trillion valuation at its June listing and make it the largest IPO on record. Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, said Anthropic may delay the IPO until after the US midterm elections in November.

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Fed preview: markets bet on a pause, with December in focus

Source: 21st Century Business Herald

The Federal Reserve will announce its October policy decision in the early hours of Oct 29 Beijing time. Although US inflation remains elevated, slowing job growth, tighter financial conditions and recent signals from officials have led markets to expect the Fed to hold the federal funds target range at 3.75%-4.00%, while keeping open the possibility of another hike in December.

The Fed raised the target range by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4.00% at its Sept 16 meeting, its first hike since July 2023. As of Oct 27, fed funds futures implied about a 10% chance of a hike in October, while the probability of a December move remained high. US consumer prices rose 3.7% year on year in September, up from 3.4% in August, with core CPI up 2.6%; non-farm payrolls increased by just 29,000 and unemployment stood at 4.2%.

No quarterly projections or dot plot will be published at this meeting, so the policy statement and Chair Kevin Warsh's press conference will be the main guide to policy direction. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, UBS and HSBC all expect a 25 basis point hike in December, taking the range to 4.00%-4.25%; Citi, after the September CPI print, shifted to expecting a December hike and then no change until a possible cut in June 2027.

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JPMorgan Private Bank: gold still faces downside, little support below US$4,000

Source: Sina Finance

The head of Asia rates and FX strategy at JPMorgan Private Bank said in an interview that gold still faces downside risks after the recent selloff, with thin market liquidity and room for rates to rise further; a firm bottom for gold will only form once rates peak.

The bank expects the Fed to hike in December and again in the first quarter of 2027, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield from just above 5% to a peak of 5.25%-5.5% by mid-year. Last week gold was sold off during a broad equity slump as investors raised cash to cover losses elsewhere, falling below US$4,000 an ounce; after a roughly 13% drop from its late-August high, prices have traded around that level.

The bank said there is almost no technical support below US$4,000 and the market is fragile, though central bank buying has helped gold largely hold above US$4,000 this year. It forecasts gold at US$4,500 an ounce by mid-2027 and US$5,000 by year-end. Wall Street is divided on the near-term outlook: Amundi and others expect a rebound, while Standard Chartered says technical support would fail if gold cannot hold the US$3,886 resistance level.

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