Japan, South Korea Stocks Open Higher: Nikkei 225 Index Breaks 66,000 Points Again; Samsung Rises Over 6%, Delivers First Batch of 12-Layer HBM4E

TradingKey - In early Asian trading on Friday, May 29, Japanese and South Korean stock markets both opened higher. As of press time, the Nikkei 225 index once again broke through 66,000 points, touching 66,036.50 points intraday and is poised to continue hitting new intraday highs. South Korea's Kospi index surpassed 8,400 points, reaching an intraday high of 8,424.53 points, just a step away from its record high of 8,457.09 points.

On the news front, all three major U.S. stock indices hit record highs on May 28, following a report by U.S. media outlet Axios stating that the U.S. and Iran had reached an agreement, pending only President Trump's approval. However, Iran subsequently stated it had not yet agreed to any memorandum of understanding, nor had it confirmed approval of the memorandum to Pakistani mediators; furthermore, Iran stated it had not made any commitments on the nuclear issue.

Regarding individual stocks, AI concept stocks continue to lead the gains, with Oracle (ORCL) surging 6.6%, Microsoft (MSFT) rising 3.5%, cloud storage giant Snowflake (SNOW) soaring 36%, and Dell (DELL) skyrocketing nearly 40% in after-hours trading.

Analysis points out that the rally in South Korean stocks today mainly benefited from the rise in U.S. equities, especially in individual stocks where the semiconductor sector remained strong. The 757% explosion in Dell's AI server revenue boosted sentiment across the South Korean semiconductor sector.

Samsung shares rose as much as 6% intraday, while SK Hynix climbed nearly 3%. Samsung Electronics announced it has begun delivering the industry's first samples of 12-layer HBM4E. The rally in Japanese stocks was primarily driven by gains in electronics stocks, with SoftBank Group, Advantest, and Tokyo Electron all rising, while electronic components maker Murata Manufacturing saw its shares surge by more than 10% at one point.