Asian shares mostly gain and South Korea and Japan recover some losses
from AI stock sell-offs
[July 21, 2026] By
CHAN HO-HIM
HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares mostly gained on Tuesday, with markets in
South Korea and Japan trading higher after recent declines due to heavy
selling of stocks linked to artificial intelligence.
U.S. futures edged higher, while oil prices slipped.
South Korea’s Kospi, which is heavily reliant on AI and
chipmaking-related shares, jumped 3.6% to 6,747.95. It fell 4.5% a day
earlier. Samsung Electronics surged 6.8%, while memory chip maker SK
Hynix gained 4.9%.
The Kospi has gained more than 50% so far this year, but fell more than
20% over the past month as investors sold to lock in profits, wary of
worries about a potential bubble in AI investments.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 added 3% to 66,067.91 after a holiday on Monday,
recovering from some of its losses from last week.
Computer memory maker Kioxia Holdings surged 16.1%, while chip testing
equipment maker Advantest jumped 7.5%. OpenAI investor SoftBank Group
climbed 5.4%, while chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron added 2.1%.
Taiwan’s Taiex, which also has benefited from the AI boom, was up 4.2%.
Its advanced AI chipmaker TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Co., advanced 3.9%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged less than 0.1% higher to 25,151.15. The
Shanghai Composite index added 1.4% to 3,850.92.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed less than 0.1% to 8,793.30.
India’s Sensex gave up 0.4%.
Oil prices fell early Tuesday after gaining the day before. Brent crude,
the international standard, fell below $90 a barrel, down 1% to $88.33.
But it’s still well above the roughly $72 per barrel level it was at
before the war started in late February.
Benchmark U.S. crude lost 0.6% at $81.97 a barrel.
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Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite
Stock Price Index (KOSPI), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics Co.
stock price at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank
headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 21, 2026. (AP
Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
 Early Tuesday, Iran attacked another
tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global oil
and gas transport. The U.S. announced another round of strikes
targeting Iran for a 10th straight night. Iran has been retaliating
against the U.S. strikes by targeting U.S. allies across the Middle
East.
As the U.S. and Iran traded fire, Iran’s interior minister traveled
to Pakistan, a main mediator, for talks, but it’s still unclear if a
new deal may be reached.
“There’s some hope of de-escalation between the U.S. and Iran,” ING
commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a
commentary Tuesday. “This won’t be an easy task. Large divisions
remain between the U.S. and Iran.”
A naval blockade by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis against Saudi
Arabia has increased risks to oil supplies, they said.
On Monday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 slipped 0.2% to 7,443.28.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.6% to 51,839.26, while
the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dipped less than 0.1% to
25,508.07.
Many of the major chipmaking and other AI-related stocks gained.
Nvidia climbed 0.2%, Micron Technology rose 1.9%, and Broadcom was
up 2%. AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, added 1.6% after it announced
an expanded partnership with Microsoft on AI.
In other dealings early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 162.53
Japanese yen from 162.50 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1421, up
from $1.1414.
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