Asian stock markets climb after earlier tech rout

What the report says

Asian equities rose on Monday after a sharp tech-driven sell-off late last week, according to Al Jazeera, with major indexes in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong all recovering some of their losses. The rebound followed gains on Wall Street at the end of the previous trading week.

In morning trading, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 3.45 percent, Taiwan’s Taiex had climbed 5.72 percent, South Korea’s Kospi was 1.68 percent higher, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up 0.19 percent. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 also moved higher.

Al Jazeera said the earlier decline was linked to the Democratic Party’s sweeping win in the US midterm elections, which raised concerns that Democratic-controlled legislatures could slow the buildout of data centres supporting artificial intelligence growth. That concern had helped trigger a steep sell-off on Wall Street and then pulled Asian markets lower on Friday.

The report also noted additional pressure on technology shares after Nvidia said it would open an independent inquiry into its chief executive’s relationship with a woman accused of being a Chinese spy. The company said it did not believe national security or company secrets had been compromised and said the CEO would cooperate with the review.