SEOUL, December 09 (AJP) - Asian equity markets remained cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting this week, with investors bracing for any signal that may accompany the widely expected interest-rate cut.
Despite Seoul’s show of resolve — underscored most recently by a rare meeting between the prime minister and the Bank of Korea governor — the dollar ended its brief decline and turned upward, gaining 1.4 won to 1,470.90 won per dollar.
South Korea’s KOSPI is trading 0.6 percent lower at 4,128.6 as of 10 a.m. Foreign investors are selling 183.9 billion won versus retail investors’ net buying of 117.7 billion won and institutional buying of 51.3 billion won.
Blue-chip names are under pressure. Samsung Electronics is down 0.65 percent at 108,800 won, a relatively mild decline thanks to rising prices in legacy semiconductors, particularly conventional DRAMs. SK hynix, more exposed to external sentiment given its concentration in high-value chips such as HBM, is trading 2.25 percent lower at 564,000 won.
LG Energy Solution, which jumped the previous day after securing a 2 trillion won electric-vehicle battery deal, is 2 percent lower at 442,000 won. Rival Samsung SDI is down 1.59 percent at 309,000 won.
Among the day’s gainers is HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, rising 6.45 percent to 579,000 won, buoyed by news of its planned shipyard project in India’s Tamil Nadu region and expectations that it could gain an edge in the Korea Destroyer Next-Generation (KDDX) program.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is little changed at 50,532.07, stabilizing as U.S. semiconductor stocks rose overnight. Nvidia partner Ibiden is 3.4 percent higher at 13,175 yen (84.51 dollars), while Tokyo Electron is up 1.36 percent at 33,700 yen.
But the yen carry-trade pressure persists: Mitsubishi Estate is down 2.4 percent at 3,728 yen, and Tokyu Fudosan Holdings is down 2.45 percent at 1,416 yen.
Taiwan’s TAIEX is 0.3 percent lower at 28,210. TSMC is down 0.3 percent at 1,490 Taiwan dollars (47.75 dollars) on profit-taking, and MediaTek is 0.35 percent lower at 1,435 Taiwan dollars.
On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index is steady at 3,920, while the Shenzhen Component is 0.3 percent lower at 13,291. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is trading 0.2 percent lower at 25,702.
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