Stocks in Taiwan, South Korea slump after Nvidia rout, growth concerns rise
Equities in Taiwan, S.Korea top losers
TSMC down 5%, SK Hynix down 9.2%
Malaysia c.bank seen holding interest rate - Reuters poll
U.S. job openings, jobless claims data awaited
By Sneha Kumar and Sameer Manekar
Sept 4 (Reuters) -Equities in South Korea and Taiwan declined sharply as Nvidia's rout overnight spilled into Asian tech stocks on Wednesday and investors exited risky assets on a revival of worries over a global growth slowdown following tepid U.S. data.
Stock markets in the emerging Asian economies were broadly under pressure with an MSCI gauge of emerging market equities outside of Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS slumping around 1.9% to hit its lowest since the yen carry trade-induced sell-off on Aug. 5.
The index has an aggregate 29% exposure to South Korea and Taiwan, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) 2330.TW, the world's biggest contract chip maker, making up around 9% of the gauge.
TSMC dropped as much as 5.5% on Wednesday while South Korea's SK Hynix 000660.KS fell as low as 9.2%. The losses came after the global AI darling Nvidia NVDA.O was sold heavily overnight as investors reined in their optimism about artificial intelligence and economic growth.
"The harsh sell-off on Wall Street was a stark reminder that September has a bad rep for wavering risk appetite," Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research, Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho Bank, wrote in a note.
"'September shivers' may be exacerbated by recent (July-August) scars from a conspiracy of U.S. recession risks and JPY carry unwind."
Jessica Amir, a market strategist at Moomoo, while also pointing to September being a historically bad month for equities, added money will return to the market in October once institutions are done rebalancing their portfolios.
Elsewhere in Asia, stocks in Malaysia .KLSE, the Philippines .PSI, and Thailand .SETI slipped between 0.3% and 0.6%, with shares in Singapore .STI declining up to 2% after advancing for four days.
Analysts also pointed to a slew of factors including the tepid U.S. manufacturing data, with traders now looking forward to a raft of U.S. data points including job openings, jobless claims, and non-farm payrolls for clues on the quantum of the rate cut expected later this month.
Locally, traders are looking at inflation data for the Philippines and Thailand, retail sales in Singapore, and Malaysian central bank's monetary policy decision later this week.
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is expected to keep its interest rates at the current 3.00% on Thursday, and will stay there at least through the end of next year, according to a Reuters poll.
Currencies were largely mixed in the region, with the ringgit MYR= appreciating 0.5% against the dollar, while the South Korean won KRW=KFTC and the Indonesian rupiah IDR= adding around 0.2% each.
The Taiwanese dollar TWD=TP lost up to 0.4% in their fourth session of losses, and was trading at its lowest since Aug. 19.
HIGHLIGHTS:
** Thai inflation target range still effective, central bank minutes say
** Indonesia raises $1.8 bln in 10-year, 30-year dollar bonds
** China's services activity expansion slows in August, Caixin PMI show
Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0457 GMT | ||||||
COUNTRY | FX RIC | FX DAILY% | FX YTD% | INDEX | STOCKS DAILY% | STOCKS YTD% |
Japan | JPY= | +0.12 | -2.92 | .N225 | -3.69 | 11.34 |
China | CNY=CFXS | +0.14 | -0.17 | .SSEC | -0.48 | -6.24 |
India | INR=IN | +0.01 | -0.89 | .NSEI | -0.51 | 15.73 |
Indonesia | IDR= | +0.23 | -0.58 | .JKSE | 0.52 | 5.27 |
Malaysia | MYR= | +0.46 | +5.64 | .KLSE | -0.31 | 14.90 |
Philippines | PHP= | -0.05 | -2.02 | .PSI | -0.63 | 6.04 |
S.Korea | KRW=KFTC | +0.22 | -4.06 | .KS11 | -3.01 | -2.66 |
Singapore | SGD= | +0.05 | +0.96 | .STI | -1.47 | 5.83 |
Taiwan | TWD=TP | -0.30 | -4.42 | .TWII | -3.94 | 18.35 |
Thailand | THB=TH | +0.19 | -0.09 | .SETI | -0.01 | -3.63 |
Graphic: World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E
Asian stock markets https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
Reportingby Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger
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