World shares mixed, Kospi gains 8.4%, as tech-led rally fades

21/05/2026

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between US dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea on May 21. (AP)

TOKYO, May 21, (AP): Shares opened lower in Europe on Thursday after a mixed session in Asia, where a rebound in oil prices eclipsed another broad rally on Wall Street. South Korea’s Kospi soared 8.4% to 7,815.59, helped by strong buying of technology shares such as Samsung Electronics, which gained 8.5% after its labor union and management reached an agreement late Wednesday that averted a potentially costly strike.

Shares in SK Hynix, a computer chipmaker partnering with Nvidia, surged 11.2%. The advance was partly powered by a stronger-than-expected quarterly report from chipmaker Nvidia, whose profit rocketed more than 200% higher in the February-April quarter from a year earlier, while revenue jumped 85%. Nvidia has been one of the biggest beneficiaries from the boom in artificial intelligence, thanks to powerful demand for its high-end AI chips.

Its shares rose 1.3% on Wednesday before its earnings report was released, but they fell 1.3% in afterhours trading after the announcement. The Kospi has been breaching records, recently exceeding 8,000 for the first time. US futures slipped, with the contract for the S&P 500 down 0.3%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2%. In early European trading, Germany's DAX gave up 0.3% to 24,669.59, while the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.2% to 8,102.25.

Britain's FTSE 100 shed 0.4% to 10,393.56. In other Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped 3.1% to 61,684.14 after the government reported that Japan’s exports rose nearly 15% in April from a year earlier, despite shocks from the Iran war. Technology-related shares were among the biggest winners, with Tokyo Electron gaining 5.9% and Advantest up 4.4%.

Taiwan's Taiex, also heavily weighted toward technology shares, gained 3.9% as major chipmaker TSMC's stock gained 3%. Chinese markets declined, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng losing 1.2% to 25,352.82. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 2% to 4,077.28. Indonesia's share benchmark dropped 3.3% as the market absorbed the impact of a government decision to put strategic natural resource exports such as coal under state control.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 picked up 1.5% to 8,621.70. Oil prices pushed higher early Thursday, a day after Brent crude had dropped 5%. Brent, the international standard, gained $1.46 to $106.48 per barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude added $1.53 to $99.79 per barrel.