BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mostly higher Thursday in Asia, led by tech-driven gains in Japan and South Korea as major computer chipmakers’ stocks surged following upbeat earnings reports from U.S. giants like Qualcomm and Micron Technology. Oil prices fell more than $1, bringing them closer to where they were before the war with Iran started. Qualcomm’s share price surged 12% in afterhours trading after the company announced it had raised its forecast for revenue this year to $40 billion from $22 billion. It also announced a new computer chip for data centers called Dragonfly C1000 CPU that Meta plans to use. Micron Technology’s shares jumped nearly 16% in afterhours trading after it upgraded its forecast and exceeded analysts’ estimates. In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index surged 4.1% to 71,995.59 as traders snapped up shares in technology companies. Chipmaker Tokyo Electron’s shares gained 7.1%, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest’s shares soared 13.4%.
South Korea’s benchmark, the Kospi, hit a new record, surging 5.9% to 8,968.22. Samsung Electronics’s shares gained 5.4% and SK Hynix leaped 11.6%.
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Elsewhere in Asia, gains were more modest. Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 0.8% and the Sensex in India was up 0.6%. The Shanghai Composite index picked up 0.4% to 4,125.76, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.4% to 23,090.27.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.5% to 8,768.20.
