Asian markets rebounded on Thursday (Jan 22), tracking gains on Wall Street after US President Donald Trump backed away from his threats to slap new tariffs on European nations.
Overnight, the S&P 500 posted its biggest one-day percentage gain in two months, gaining 1.16 per cent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Index and Nasdaq Composite also surged, gaining the most in percentage terms since Jan 5 and Dec 19, respectively. The Dow rose 1.21 per cent while the Nasdaq added 1.18 per cent.
The US President, who is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, said the US will no longer be imposing tariffs on European allies that had been scheduled to take effect from Feb 1. He had ruled out taking Greenland by force in an earlier speech, which also helped to calm investor nerves.
Trump’s comments eased market volatility, with Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore all up in morning trade.
South Korea’s benchmark Kospi topped 5,000 points for the first time, rising 2.08 per cent to 5,009.4 as of 0009 GMT (8.09am, Singapore time).
It was powered by gains in chipmakers like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, reaching a level promised by President Lee Jae Myung in just over six months since he took office.
The index has risen 19 per cent so far this month, after emerging as the world’s best performer in 2025 with a 76 per cent jump – its biggest annual gain since 1999 – on a chip rally fueled by artificial intelligence optimism and various capital market reforms.
Chipmaker Samsung Electronics rose 4.15 per cent and SK Hynix gained 3.65 per cent on Thursday, hitting record highs.
Hyundai Motor, up 4.6 per cent and also trading at a record, has also been rallying this month as investors cheered its newly-unveiled humanoid robot technologies.
“The bullish market trend this time is a fundamentals-driven one based on earnings growth, which makes the Kospi still cheap,” said Kim Jae-seung, an analyst at Hyundai Motor Securities.
Under his “Kospi 5,000” initiative, President Lee has introduced a series of market reforms and tax measures aimed at boosting the domestic stock market and resolving the so-called “Korea Discount”, since he took office in June 2025.
The Korea Discount refers to a tendency for domestic stocks to trade at lower valuations compared with global peers, due to factors such as opaque corporate governance structures and low dividend payouts.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/south-korea-kospi-tops-5000-first-time-asia-markets-trump-tariffs-greenland-5875206
