Japan, South Korea Stocks V-Shaped Reversal: SK Hynix Closes Up 2.59%, Kioxia Rises Over 7%

TradingKey - During the Asian session on June 11, South Korea's KOSPI index closed at 7,763.95 points, up 0.43%. Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed at 64,217.22 points, edging up 0.06%; in early trading, it had dropped over 2% before gradually narrowing its losses and rebounding slightly.

[Source: TradingView]

In the South Korean market, SK Hynix saw intraday news of capacity expansion. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won stated that the company will triple its wafer production capacity by 2034 to meet the growing demand for advanced memory chips in the artificial intelligence sector. This news pushed SK Hynix from a loss to a gain, jumping over 5% at one point before closing at 2.101 million won, up 2.59%. Samsung Electronics was buoyed by news that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would visit next week to discuss cooperation, turning positive during intraday trading before ultimately closing at 299,000 won, down 1.16%.

Foreign capital continues to flow out of the South Korean stock market, marking 23 consecutive trading days of net selling as of June 10, with a cumulative net selling volume of 74 trillion won during this period, leaving market sentiment highly unstable. The KOSPI 200 Volatility Index (VKOSPI), known as the "Korean version of the VIX," climbed again to a high of 89.17 during the session, approaching the all-time high of 91.23 reached just the previous trading day.

[Source: TradingView]

In the Japanese market, SoftBank Group fell 1.35%, while Tokyo Electron rose 2.54%; Kioxia surged over 7%. On June 1, Goldman Sachs ( GS) upgraded its rating from "Neutral" to "Buy" and significantly raised its target price to 93,000 yen. Combined with the explosion in AI inference demand tightening NAND flash supply and demand, multiple positive factors converged to drive the stock price higher.

There are also disruptions at the monetary policy level. On June 10, the Bank of Japan confirmed that Governor Kazuo Ueda was hospitalized with a liver cyst infection and will be absent from the policy meeting on June 15-16. Market expectations for a 25-basis-point interest rate hike next week are as high as 88%, but the Governor's absence introduces significant uncertainty into policy communication regarding the future interest rate path.

On the international front, the Iranian Armed Forces announced in the early hours of the 11th the full closure of the Strait of Hormuz effective immediately. Meanwhile, the U.S. CPI rose 4.2% year-on-year in May, hitting a three-year high. These two external shocks jointly triggered risk-off sentiment during early trading that day, causing Japanese and South Korean stock markets to plunge sharply after the opening.