Jul 30 ,2026
Synopsis:
Asia stocks were again volatile Wednesday and ended mostly lower. China's tech-orientated Shenzhen, ChiNext and STAR benchmarks all ended sharply down while the main benchmarks in Shanghai also fell; Hong Kong ended slightly higher. The Kospi fell again despite a bright open, Taiwan was slightly lower. Losses for Australia and Singapore; Japan mixed with Nikkei higher but Topix lower. India flat in morning trade. US futures mixed, Europe higher in the first hour. US dollar settling at overnight losses, few movements of note in Asia forex. Treasury yields higher, JGB yields also strengthening. Crude futures lower with Brent below $88/bl. Base metals higher in the wake of the Fed's rate decision, precious metals mixed.
Asia equites drifted lower Thursday as tech stocks largely pared early gains to finish either flat or lower. South Korea's Kospi rose shortly after the bell on Samsung Electronics' quarterlies and an announcement late Wednesday that authorities would cap retail involvement in SEC and SK Hynix single stock ETFs. But, by mid-morning, the selling had resumed and the Kospi and Kosdaq indexes both ended lower. Other technology clusters were more resilient with gains at Advantest (6857.JP) and Tokyo Electron (8035.JP) in Japan, LG Energy Solution (373220.KS) and SK Innovation (096770.KS) in South Korea, but the rout in mainland China-listed names continued.
Elsewhere, investors digested the Fed decision to keep US rates on hold last night with the vote split but with a dearth of accompanying guidance from Chair Warsh. Regional sovereign yields ticked higher in tandem with Treasuries but there were few other identifiable follow-through moves in Asia Thursday, while middle east developments also had little impact. Japan PM Takaichi endorsed the cut to consumption tax on food, as widely expected; Tokyo also downgraded its FY26 GDP y/y growth forecast to 0.9% from 1.3%, and closer to consensus on 0.7% largely on the impact from the Iran conflict. Australia Q2 CPI was a little below RBA expectations although inflation in several sub-components remained persistent.
Sony Group (6758.JP) made a non-bonding acquisition proposal for camera lens manufacturer Tamron (7740.JP). Toyota Motors (7203.JP) said its H1 production and sales fell amid weaker demand from China and a model changeover for one of its sports utility vehicles. Samsung Electronics (005930.KS)posted a250-fold increase in semiconductor profits, says it expects memory shortages to get worse next year. Zhongji Innolight (3308.HK) stock fell 2% in its Hong Kong debut after raising HK$53.4B ($6.8B) in the city's biggest IPO in seven years. Keppel (BN4.SP) posted H1 profits down 59% amid deepening losses from non-core businesses including oil rigs and real estate just days after it announced a deal with Apollo to divest businesses.
Digest:
Notable Gainers:
+11% 051900.KS (LG H&H): reports Q2 revenue and operating profit ahead of StreetAccount estimates
+10.9% 6857.JP (Advantest): reports Q1 earnings driven by AI inference related demand; revenue and operating income beat FactSet estimates; raises FY guidance
+7.3% 2303.TT (United Microelectronics): reports Q2 EPS NT$3.39 vs StreetAccount NT$1.02
+6.0% 6501.JP (Hitachi): reports Q1 revenue and adjusted operating income ahead of FactSet estimates
+3.0% 028260.KS (Samsung C&T): reports Q2 operating profit and revenue ahead of StreetAccount estimates; results driven by strong E&C segment
+1.7% 1876.HK (Budweiser Brewing Co. APAC): reports Q2 normalized profit attributable $247M vs StreetAccount $185.6M
Notable Decliners:
-53.2% 1196.HK (Realord Technology): chairman Lin Xiaohui and executive director Su Jiaohua's Manureen Holdings sells 11.8% stake in Realord for HK$850M
-10.1% 6586.JP (Makita): reports Q1 results; Western Europe revenue weak
-9.9% 2382.TT (Quanta Computer): reportedly offers 49M GDSs between $43.91-44.77/share to raise up to $2.2B (NT$71.36B)
-9.1% 300308.CH (Zhongji Innolight): H-shares debut at HK$971 on Hong Kong Stock Exchange
-0.7% 005930.KS (Samsung Electronics): reports full Q2 results; DS segment KRW127.5T vs StreetAccount KRW125.404T, +357% y/y
Data:
Economic:
Australia
Q2 export price index +1.1% q/q vs +0.5% in Q1
Import price index +5.7% q/q vs +0.1% in Q1
June building approvals +7.2% m/m vs consensus (0.5%) and revised (1.6%) in May
New Zealand July
ANZ Business Confidence +49.3 vs +36.6 in June
Markets:
Nikkei: 433.24 or +0.71% to 61867.43
Hang Seng: 50.96 or +0.20% to 25858.88
Shanghai Composite: (23.78) or (0.62%) to 3804.69
Shenzhen Composite: (59.87) or (2.46%) to 2372.80
ASX200: (70.90) or (0.78%) to 8967.70
KOSPI: (69.68) or (1.23%) to 5593.56
SENSEX: 98.78 or +0.13% to 77753.38
Currencies:
$-¥: +0.26 or +0.16% to 163.6800
$-KRW: (5.69) or (0.39%) to 1437.1100
A$-$: (0.00) or (0.04%) to 0.6953
$-INR: (0.03) or (0.04%) to 95.6973
$-CNY: (0.01) or (0.13%) to 6.7581
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