Asian shares gain, with South Korea's Kospi up 6%, after the US Treasury expands its debt buybacks

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares advanced Thursday, tracking Wall Street gains, and South Korea’s benchmark Kospi jumped more than 6%.U.S. futures edged higher after the U.S. Treasury Department said it would at least double the size of planned purchases of longer-term government debt.That could ease pressure on share prices emanating from the bond market since the purchases would push bond prices higher, helping to bring down yields.The Kospi surged 6.1% to 6,858.91 after sinking 5.8% on Wednesday on renewed selling of shares related to artificial intelligence.Samsung Electronics jumped 9.7%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix surged 14.1% after the company announced a significant share buyback plan.Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.3% to 66,178.26, reversing declines earlier in the week. Japan reported it logged a trade deficit for a third straight month in July, as both imports and exports hit record highs.

Shares of OpenAI investor SoftBank Group, a Japanese multinational investment holding firm, added 3.8%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.1% to 25,786.32, while the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.3% to 3,905.23.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.3% to 9,066.40.

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