HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher on Tuesday, tracking Wall Street gains, while the Japanese yen was trading near a 40-year low against the U.S. dollar. Shares in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan rebounded from earlier losses spurred by selling of technology companies due to concerns over the sustainability of the boom in artificial intelligence. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.9% to 70,062.32. Chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron jumped 3.3%. SoftBank Group, an investment holding company that invests in OpenAI, was up 1.2%.South Korea’s Kospi index, which has performed strongly during the global AI frenzy due to growing demand for memory chips from major chipmakers like SK Hynix, gained 1 to 8,476.48. Shares of Samsung Electronics rose 3.4% and those of SK Hynix rose 0.8% after the two companies and the government jointly announced plans for over $500 billion of investments in the country’s chipmaking and AI.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.6% to 22,879.87 and the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.5% to 4,094.40. Taiwan’s Taiex picked up 2.5%. China reported its factory activity slightly picked up pace in June, mainly due to exports and demand generated by expanding use of AI. The survey released by the National Bureau of Statistics said the manufacturing purchasing managers index, or PMI, expanded to 50.3 in June from 50 in May. That’s better than had been expected.
