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StreetAccount Summary - Asian Market Recap: Nikkei +0.29%, Hang Seng (1.44%), Shanghai Composite (0.01%) as of 03:10 ET

Feb 26 ,2026

• Synopsis:

  • Asia equities traded mostly higher Thursday. Strong opening gains on the Nikkei and Topix faded somewhat after the Nikkei touched a fresh intraday record high. More strong gains for the Kospi which took it to yet another record high; Taipei flat. Mainland China mixed, Hang Seng sharply lower as its tech stocks sold off again. Southeast Asia mixed as Singapore underperformed; India a few points down. US futures soft, Europe mixed in opening trades. US dollar flat, yen stronger on hawkish BOJ comments, yuan also strengthened sharply following lower fixing point this morning by the PBOC. Treasuries and JGBs mixed. Crude futures continued to trade in a tight range; base metals lower, precious metals also giving up some ground. Cryptocurrencies mixed.

  • Asia equities saw another positive day Thursday as the MSCI Asia Pac ex Japan index set a fresh record high, albeit with some hesitation in places. It follows Nvidia's quarterly beat and strong outlook statement tempered by it missing the 'whisper' number, and anxiousness over AI capex spending, which together combined to weigh on the stock afterhours. The firm also acknowledged a rising competitive threat from China-based AI firms and voiced concerns over H200 sales. Nevertheless, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK Hynix (000660.KS) led the Kospi up almost 4% today and to a fresh record high.

  • Seoul also supported by the BOK leaving base interest rates on hold and upping FY GDP forecasts, as expected by economists, while a new dot-plot projection indicated no change for another six months at least. Korea sovereign yields fell noticeably and the won reached a four-month high against the US dollar post the announcements. The Monetary Authority of Singapore's quarterly economist survey showed a marked shift in expectations for policy with almost half of surveyed economists now expecting a tightening in April versus around 5% late last year. Elsewhere, BOJ board member and known hawk, Hajime Takata, reiterated his call for gradual rate hikes while RBA Governor Bullock conceded there were difficult policy judgements ahead amid uncertainty over tightness in the economy.

  • In other developments, several China-based lithium producers rallied - and battery manufacturers fell - on reports Zimbabwe had barred exports of raw materials and lithium concentrates. USTR Greer said Trump will soon sign an executive order formalizing a 15% tariff "where appropriate". Singapore industrial output surged 16.6% y/y to easily beat expectations on a sharp increase in electronics output. Malaysia producer prices fell the most in six months largely on a decline in oil-related products. Japan demographics data showed another fall in the birthrate and an almost 1M decline in the overall population in 2025.

  • Itochu Corp (2692.JP) is to launch a tender offer to buy all the remaining shares in Itochu-Shokuhin for ¥80B. Toyota Motor (7203.JP) is planning a large-scale unwinding of strategic shareholdings that would see around $19B of its shares sold by financial institutions. SK Hynix (000660.KS) said it will invest $15B in new chip production facilities in South Korea by 2030 to meet rising demand for semiconductors. HSBC (5.HK) is now working with advisors over the sale of its Indonesia assets with DBS (D05.SP), UOB (U11.SP) and CIMB (1023.MK) among the potential suitors, according to a Bloomberg report; has also started process to sell its Singapore life insurance business valued at around $1B. Qantas (QAN.AU) posted a record quarterly profit thanks partly to revamped aircraft fleet, said it will revamp its frequent flyer program. BlueScope Steel (BSL.AU) said the revised $10.7B offer from SGH and Steel Dynamics was still not enough but it was willing to talk with them over their bid. Xiaomi (1810.HK) is to challenge an Indian tax ruling in a closely watched case over royalty payments in contract manufacturing.

• Digest:

  • Bank of Korea keeps benchmark interest rate unchanged, ups economic forecasts:

    • Bank of Korea's (BOK)MPCkept its benchmark repo rate unchanged at 2.5% for sixth consecutive meeting Thursday in unanimous vote. Bank cited stronger-than-expected growth but also need to prioritize stability in forex and housing markets (Yonhap). Governor Rhee said concentration of funds in property sector not desirable from long-term perspective while won-US dollar exchange rate not at a point 'we can feel reassured'. New forward-guidance dot plot showed median projection for next six months at 2.5%, underpinning board's January move to neutral stance; economists expect no change for remainder of FY26. Bank raised FY26 growth forecast to 2.0% from prior 1.8% on strong exports, private consumption recovery, acceleration in facilities investment; inflation outlook raised to 2.2% from 2.1%. Announcements all as expected by economists. Rhee said domestic supply-demand factors largely adjusted, external factors such as US-AI related stock movements, tariff policy changes remain and will drive won rate this year. South Korea government bond yields fell noticeably and won reached four-month high post announcements.

  • BOJ's Takata says fears of deflation relapse has been dispelled:

    • In a speech, BOJ board member Takata (the lone dissenter in January who proposed to raise the policy rate to 1.0%) discussed his assessment of US tariff impacts on Japan covering four areas -- adverse developments in (1) capex and (2) exports, as well as whether (3) a decline in corporate profits will restrain wage growth and output prices, and (4) yen appreciation driven by tariff-related speculation. Made the case that Japan has proven resilient on all fronts and concluded fear of a relapse into deflation has been dispelled. Foresees overseas trade policies unlikely to constrain domestic positive developments. Moreover, advocated for discussions that assume achievement of the price stability target and shift focus more to upswings in prices especially in light of prospects for a broadening recovery in overseas economies. Also touched on other topical areas. Echoed broad BOJ sentiment of the challenges in pinpointing the neutral rate, describing is a theoretical and elusive concept. Favored gradual rate hikes and data-dependent assessment rather aiming to reach an expected neutral rate. Position on JGB purchase reductions was remarkably cautious, noting effective JGB supply (purchase reductions plus net issuance) in FY25 is expected to have led to a record increase in outstanding JGBs, surpassing the early 2000s. Stressed that care is required to avoid causing volatility that exceeds market risk premium.

  • Traders prepare for downside risks for yuan as currency at strongest level in nearly three years:

    • Onshore and offshore yuan have strengthened to strongest levels against dollar in nearly three years with PBOC's midpoint fixing also firming. Central bank set yuan's reference rate at 6.9228 per dollar, strongest since 11-May 2023. Yuan has steadily appreciated against dollar recently, up by 2.1% YTD and higher for ninth day in a row, best run since 2010, supported by easing trade tensions between US and China, rate cuts by Federal Reserve and policy uncertainty in Washington. Meanwhile Bloomberg noted traders have boosted bearish bets on yuan to highest in ten months with risk reversals on offshore yuan moving into positive territory over the past few sessions. Historical data suggests that yuan tends to weaken from February through mid-year as USD/CNH has tended to bottom around LNY amid corporate repatriation before the holiday. More expensive call options than puts also indicates traders preparing for possibility of push back from Chinese policymakers, who have been intervening to slow yuan's appreciation. PBOC officials and local financial press have repeatedly warned against betting on one-way path of gains.

  • Singapore's monetary authority survey points to possible policy tightening in April:

    • Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) quarterly survey of forecasters showed economists increasingly see MAS tightening policy in April's review while giving slightly more upbeat picture of economy. Survey showed 47% of respondents expect MAS to tighten policy, up from just 5.6% in previous survey, via increase in slope of S$NEER policy band. Economists said sharp rise in expectations reflects marked upward shift in sentiment amid higher growth forecasts, resilient exports. Respondents also forecast 3.6% FY26 GDP growth versus prior 2.3% and MAS's 2-4% range. Median core and headline inflation forecast at 1.5% versus MAS's 1-2% range. Survey showed analysts see prolonged AI-tech cycle as key upside risk to forecasts; geopolitical developments, AI bubble burst as downside risks. MAS left policy settings on hold in January but raised FY26 forecasts after FY25, Q425 GDP growth came in better than expected. Scheduled to issue policy statement 14-Apr.

  • Nvidia earnings broadly beat:

    • Nvidia (NVDA) post-close results came in broadly above FactSet consensus on both Q4 key metrics and guidance. Confirmed accelerated computing and AI as the main revenue drivers. Highlights of data center recap include the Rubin platform, noting Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will be among the first to deploy Vera-Rubin. In a CNBC preview, discussed memory procurement bottlenecks and AI infrastructure head Dion Harris indicated they are in "good shape." Blackwell Ultra was mentioned with basic performance benchmarks though with no notable guidance. Meta (META) partnership to entail large-scale deployment of Nvidia CPUs, networking and millions of Blackwell and Rubin GPUs. According to a 10K filing, confirmed Nvidia is finalizing an investment and partnership agreement with OpenAI though nothing is locked in. Most of the attention went to the revenue guidance beat to reinforce the sustainability of AI investment outlays. China impacts remain unclear with outlook not containing expected revenue from data center chips (Reuters). Company received licenses this month from the US government to ship "small amounts" of its H200 chips to customers in China. Follows earlier comment from a US Commerce Department official to the House Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday that there have been no H200s approved for shipment so far (Bloomberg).

  • Notable Gainers:

    • +20% 011070.KS (LG Innotek Co.): analyst notes expansion into robotics industry, with expected price increase effects

    • +9.8% 2692.JP (Itochu-Shokuhin): Itochu Corp. to launch tender offer to buy all remaining shares in Itochu-Shokuhin at ¥13,000/share

    • +3.2% 002466.CH (Tianqi Lithium): lithium space higher after reports Zimbabwe's mine ministry has banned all exports of raw materials and lithium concentrates

    • +1.7% 586.HK (China Conch Venture Holdings): Anhui Conch contemplating increasing stake in China Conch Venture Holdings to 21%

  • Notable Decliners:

    • -13.6% 5838.JP (Rakuten Bank): Rakuten Group restarts discussion toward fintech business reorganization, which was discontinued in September 2024

    • -9.9% 2301.TT (Lite-On Technology): reports Q4 EPS NT$1.70 vs FactSet NT$1.95, revenue NT$44.36B vs FactSet NT$46.79B

    • -5.8% 3668.HK (Yancoal Australia): reports FY NPAT A$440M vs FactSet A$474.9M;

    • -1.0% 2689.HK (Nine Dragons Paper Holdings): reports H1 net income attributable CNY1.97B vs guidance CNY1.95-2.05B

    • -0.8% 1686.HK (SUNeVision Holdings): reports H1 revenue and EBITDA below expectations

    • -0.3% 2308.TT (Delta Electronics): reports Q4 earnings; revenue NT$161.61B vs FactSet NT$159.97B

• Data:

  • Economic:

    • Australia Q4

      • Private capital expenditure +0.4% q/q vs consensus 0.0% and +6.4% in Q3

        • Equipment, plant and machinery capex (1.7%) vs +11.5% in Q3

    • New Zealand February

      • ANZ Business Confidence +59.2 vs +64.1 in January

    • Singapore January

      • Manufacturing Production NSA Y/Y +16.6% versus +10.9% in prior month

  • Markets:

    • Nikkei: 170.27 or +0.29% to 58753.39

    • Hang Seng: (384.70) or (1.44%) to 26381.02

    • Shanghai Composite: (0.60) or (0.01%) to 4146.63

    • Shenzhen Composite: 8.97 or +0.33% to 2755.22

    • ASX200: 47.00 or +0.51% to 9175.30

    • KOSPI: 223.41 or +3.67% to 6307.27

    • SENSEX: (180.07) or (0.22%) to 82096.00

  • Currencies:

    • $-¥: (0.24) or (0.15%) to 156.1310

    • $-KRW: +0.10 or +0.01% to 1427.7400

    • A$-$: (0.00) or (0.12%) to 0.7116

    • $-INR: (0.05) or (0.05%) to 90.8859

    • $-CNY: (0.03) or (0.44%) to 6.8394