Tokyo’s stock market opened lower to start the week on Monday, July 13. The Nikkei 225 began the session at 68,410.63, down 147.10 points from the previous Friday’s close, though it recovered into positive territory after the initial selling ran its course. Meanwhile, South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index opened lower before fluctuating between gains and losses in a choppy session, with semiconductor heavyweight SK Hynix sliding more than 3% as selling pressure hit select chip-related names across Asian markets.<\/p>\n
The Tokyo market felt ripple effects from SK Hynix’s ADR listing on the Nasdaq last Friday. The ADRs closed their first day at $168.49 (approximately \u00a527,000), 13% above the offering price and 15.78% higher than the primary share’s closing price of \u20a92.18 million (approximately $1,448.72) in Seoul. Despite the strong debut, some semiconductor and AI-related stocks in Tokyo faced selling in the morning session.<\/p>\n
Among the most actively traded stocks by value on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market, Kioxia Holdings (285A.T) and Taiyo Yuden (6976.T) declined. Silicon wafer manufacturer SUMCO (3436.T) rose, but by sector, metal products, banking, and non-ferrous metals topped the gainers’ list, reflecting a lack of clear direction in the broader market. SoftBank Group (9984.T), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T), Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T), Fujikura (5803.T), and Lasertec (6920.T) all advanced.<\/p>\n
In the U.S. last Friday, all three major indices closed higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 149.60 points to 52,637.01, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 74.72 points to 26,281.61. President Trump’s announcement of an agreement to continue peace talks with Iran eased geopolitical risks, with buying fueled by falling crude oil prices and enthusiasm for AI-related stocks. Nikkei 225 futures in Chicago settled at 69,250, up 440 points from Osaka levels.<\/p>\n
However, the situation shifted dramatically over the weekend. President Trump formally declared an end to the ceasefire with Iran, and Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a critical chokepoint for global energy shipments. Additional airstrikes by U.S. Central Command sent international crude prices soaring, chilling investor sentiment.<\/p>\n
In Seoul, SK Hynix traded at \u20a92.11 million (approximately $1,399.54), down 3.39% from the previous session, at one point falling as much as 4.40% to \u20a92.08 million (approximately $1,382.08). In contrast, Samsung Electronics rose 0.70% to \u20a9287,000 (approximately $190.73), highlighting a sharp divergence between South Korea’s two largest semiconductor companies.<\/p>\n
Market observers noted that some foreign financial institutions recommended an arbitrage strategy of “buy ADRs, short primary shares” following SK Hynix’s strong ADR debut, intensifying selling pressure on the primary shares in Seoul. According to investor trading data from the Korea Exchange (as of 9:07 a.m. local time), institutional investors were net buyers of \u20a936 billion (approximately $23.9 million), while retail investors sold a net \u20a910.7 billion (approximately $7.1 million) and foreigners offloaded a net \u20a926.7 billion (approximately $17.7 million). Within the electrical and electronics sector, retail investors bought a net \u20a918.3 billion (approximately $12.2 million), while foreigners sold a net \u20a915.9 billion (approximately $10.6 million) and institutions were net sellers of \u20a93.7 billion (approximately $2.5 million).<\/p>\n
Amid this backdrop, Tokyo saw semiconductor-related stocks rebound after the initial selling subsided, with the Nikkei recovering into positive territory at times. Market participants noted that “while there are concerns about the impact of escalating Middle East tensions on corporate earnings through higher crude oil prices, structural growth expectations for AI-related demand remain firmly intact, and appetite for buying on dips is still robust.”<\/p>\n
Across Asian markets overall, the combination of heightened geopolitical risks and arbitrage trading dynamics surrounding the semiconductor ADR listing has left investors struggling to find clear direction.<\/p>\n
Key Index and Stock Movements (as of 9:00 a.m. JST)<\/p>\n
Index \/ StockValueChangeNikkei 22568,410.63-147.10TOPIX4,050.36+14.28KOSPI7,511.68+35.74 ptsKOSDAQ852.55+15.12 ptsSK Hynix\u20a92.11 million-3.39%Samsung Electronics\u20a9287,000+0.70%<\/p>\n
Note: KOSPI, KOSDAQ, and South Korean individual stock figures are preliminary values as of 9:03\u20139:07 a.m. local time. Nikkei 225 and TOPIX are as of the market open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tokyo’s stock market opened lower to start the week on Monday, July 13. The Nikkei 225 began the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,21080,404,5921,2974,20996,32107,14570,446,52,36225,7599],"class_list":["post-57218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tokyo","tag-japan","tag-kioxia-holdings","tag-nasdaq","tag-nikkei-225","tag-president-trump","tag-samsung-electronics","tag-sk-hynix","tag-softbank-group","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-tokyo","tag-tokyo-stock-exchange-prime-market","tag-topix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}