HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares were mostly lower Thursday and oil prices slipped despite a flurry of strikes between the U.S. and Iran.U.S. futures edged higher. Selling of AI-related shares weighed on benchmarks in South Korea and Japan. An interest rate hike by the Bank of Korea also contributed to a 6.6% tumble for the Kospi, to 6,816.70. It was the first rate hike by the BOK since 2023 and was aimed at helping curb inflationary pressures due to the Iran war. Memory chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 11.2%, while Samsung Electronics fell 8.2%.Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.3% ahead of the release of an earnings report by Taiwan computer chipmaker TSMC, which is often seen as a barometer for the global industry and for the boom in artificial intelligence.U.S. futures edged higher.Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.9% to 66,767.64. Shares of Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia plummeted 13.5%. Chipmaking equipment company Tokyo Electron dropped 5.2%, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest gave up 5.6%.SoftBank Group shed 6.4%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was a regional outlier, gaining 1.7% to 25,111.22. Alibaba’s Hong Kong-traded shares climbed 4.4%, after China’s cyberspace regulator said Wednesday it had approved the Apple Intelligence AI tool for use in China. An Alibaba spokesperson said its Qwen model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence.The Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.9% to 3,921.20.
