Asian stock markets rebound after the tech sell-off

Asian share markets rose on Monday, recovering part of last week's sharp losses in technology stocks, as investors regained their footing after a heavy sell-off on Wall Street linked to the United States midterm election results. Major indices in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong all posted notable gains, following a partial recovery in New York on Friday.

By 4:00 GMT, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was up 3.45 per cent. In Taipei the Taiex climbed 5.72 per cent, Seoul's Kospi added 1.68 per cent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index edged 0.19 per cent higher. Futures for Wall Street's S&P 500 rose 0.60 per cent, while futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 gained 0.59 per cent.

The earlier slide was driven by two shocks. First, US chip giant Nvidia announced it would investigate a reported relationship between its chief executive and a woman accused of being a Chinese spy. The company's board said it retained confidence in Jensen Huang and had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised, but said an independent review would examine all available information, and Huang pledged full cooperation.

Second, the midterm results raised fears that legislatures under Democratic control could slow the expansion of data centres that supply computing power for artificial intelligence. That anxiety triggered a sell-off worth about US$2.5 trillion on Thursday, which spread to Asia on Friday: the Nikkei fell about 6 per cent, the Kospi 9 per cent and the Hang Seng 1.3 per cent.

Monday's gains suggest investors are beginning to look past those fears, though analysts caution that political uncertainty in Washington and questions over AI spending will keep markets volatile in the weeks ahead.