Asian stock markets faced a challenging session on Friday, with technology stocks leading the declines amid renewed concerns about the scale of investment in artificial intelligence. Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 2.1% to 63,290.11, while the broader Topix declined 1%, as semiconductor manufacturers and AI-linked stocks came under pressure.
South Korea's Kospi fell around 3.5%, while mainland China's Shanghai Composite was down 1.4%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng bucked the regional trend, gaining 1.5%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2% higher. The sell-off in tech stocks followed a disappointing reaction to Alphabet’s latest results, which reignited market concerns about the current scale of AI spending.
In Tokyo, semiconductor-related stocks suffered some of the heaviest losses, with Ibiden, Lasertec, Advantest, and Tokyo Electron all declining sharply, along with tech investor SoftBank and tech group Fujitsu. In Seoul, heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix also fell despite both reporting strong quarterly results in recent days.
One bright spot was gaming group Konami, which surged after reporting a 73% increase in first-half operating profit to JPY111.3bn from JPY64.3bn a year earlier, while revenue jumped 37% to JPY308bn. The firm also raised its full-year earnings guidance. Theme park operator Oriental Land, which runs Tokyo Disney Resort, also impressed with its half-year results and an accompanying update to its dividend forecast.
In Japan, the Bank of Japan left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.25% following an 8-1 vote, in line with market expectations, while signalling that further increases remained possible as inflationary pressures persisted.