Japan and South Korea Stocks Fall, SK Hynix Defies Trend to Close Up 2.07%, Reaching Another Record Closing High

TradingKey - During the Asian trading session on May 28, Japanese and South Korean stock markets closed lower across the board. The Nikkei 225 Index fell 0.47% to 64,693.05 points; the KOSPI Index dropped 0.53% to 8,185.29 points.

[Source: TradingView]

In Japan, the Nikkei Index recently retraced approximately 2% from its weekly highs as the market shifted into profit-taking mode. SoftBank Group fell 2.02%, and Tokyo Electron dropped 0.34%.

By sector, semiconductor equipment stocks saw mixed performance, with Advantest falling 2.91% and Renesas Electronics dropping 3.76%, while semiconductor material giant Sumco rose 1.92% against the trend.

Notably, the passive components sector emerged as the strongest theme of the day: Taiyo Yuden closed up 17% and Murata Manufacturing rose 9.18%, with both hitting record highs.

[Source: TradingView]

The KOSPI Index plummeted by more than 3% intraday, breaking below the 7,900-point threshold, but heavyweight semiconductor stocks attracted dip-buying capital, driving a significant narrowing of the index's losses.

SK Hynix closed up 2.07%, hitting another record closing high and bringing its year-to-date gain to 251.61%, decoupling from the weak broader market. Samsung Electronics fell 2.44% under pressure, highlighting a significant divergence between the two memory giants. LG Energy Solution surged over 15% after signing a 2.4 trillion won energy storage system (ESS) supply contract, making it one of the day's standout heavyweight performers.

The two memory giants, Samsung and SK Hynix, have a combined weight of over 50% in the KOSPI. Samsung Electronics' pressure that day was interpreted by the market as a continued digestion of approximately 5.28 trillion won in foreign sell-offs from the previous week. In contrast, SK Hynix's gain against the trend reflects the market's differentiated pricing of HBM technical barriers.

Furthermore, the listing of 18 leveraged and inverse single-stock ETFs on May 27 further intensified capital rotation and volatility among individual stocks.