DOW JONES–After three days of sometimes heavy losses due to the attacks on Iran, there was a significant recovery on the East Asian stock exchanges on Thursday. The increase was particularly strong in Seoul, where the Kospi rose by 9.6 percent – the strongest daily percentage gain since the end of October 2008. The index had lost almost 20 percent on the last two trading days. The Nikkei-225 in Tokyo improved by 1.9 percent. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.6 percent and the Hang Seng Index also climbed 0.6 percent in late trading.
The intensity of Iranian missile attacks has fallen sharply as US military strikes have weakened the country’s capabilities, said analyst Chang Wei Liang of DBS Group Research. There are also reports that Iran has signaled at the intelligence level that it is open to talks about ending the war, the strategist added.
In addition, China has set a gross domestic product growth target of 4.5 to 5 percent for 2026. It is the lowest target since the 1990s and follows three years of growth of “around 5 percent”. If China’s economy grows by less than 5 percent this year, it would be the slowest growth in more than three decades, excluding the years of the Covid-19 pandemic. China also said its real GDP grew by 5 percent last year, meeting its official target despite a renewed trade war with the United States.
A lower GDP target should give the Chinese government more leeway for qualitative growth, said chief economist Lynn Song of ING. “With the new target, there appears to be a tolerance for slower growth, which should give policymakers more flexibility to pursue quality growth, a priority in recent years,” Song said. The impact of fiscal policy could improve this year, with more funds potentially flowing into the real economy, Song added.
Among the individual stocks in Seoul, it was primarily the index heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix that are recovering from the recent strong declines. This increased by 11.2 and 11.1 percent respectively. This was also supported by the good specifications from the USA, where chip values were sought. The shares of Hyundai Motor, which had also suffered badly, recorded an increase of 9.6 percent.
Among Asian airline stocks, Cathay Pacific gained 1.7 percent and Singapore Airlines gained 0.9 percent. Qatar Airways plans to begin operating a limited number of flights on Thursday to facilitate the departure of those stranded in the country. The airline will offer flights from Muscat, Oman to destinations such as London, Berlin, Copenhagen, Madrid, Rome and Amsterdam. It will also operate a flight from Riyadh to Frankfurt.
In Sydney, the S&P/ASX-200 only rose by 0.4 percent. Here, the price decline of index heavyweight BHP (-1.0%) prevented significant gains. Rio Tinto, on the other hand, rose by 1.2 percent. Both stocks traded ex-dividend.
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INDEX last +/- % % YTD trading close
S&P/ASX 200 (Sydney) 8,940.30 +0.4 2.6 06:00
Nikkei-225 (Tokyo) 55,278.06 +1.9 — 07:30
Topix 500 (Tokyo) 2,884.59 +1.8 8.4 07:00
Kospi (Seoul) 5,583.90 +9.6 32.5 07:30
Hang-Seng (Hongk.) 25,365.93 +0.5 -1.0 09:00
Shanghai Comp. 4,108.57 +0.6 3.5 08:00
FOREX last +/-% 00:00 Wed, 08:26% YTD
EUR/USD 1.1602 -0.3 1.1633 1.1618 -1.2
EUR/JPY 182.26 -0.2 182.69 182.86 -0.9
EUR/GBP 0.8699 +0.0 0.8696 0.8702 -0.2
USD/JPY 157.06 +0.0 157.03 157.38 0.3
USD/KRW 1,465.60 +0.2 1,462.23 1,473.37 1.7
USD/CNY 6.8969 0.0 6.8969 6.9146 -1.4
USD/CNH 6.8985 +0.1 6.8925 6.9187 -1.1
USD/HKD 7.8191 +0.0 7.8176 7.8123 0.5
AUD/USD 0.7042 -0.4 0.7073 0.7029 5.6
NZD/USD 0.5927 -0.2 0.5938 0.5903 3.0
BTC/USD 72,630.76 -1.0 73,346.55 68,499.46 -17.2
CRUDE OIL last +/- % +/- abs. End of the previous day
WTI/Nymex 77.07 +3.2 2.41 74.66
Brent/ICE 83.56 +2.7 2.16 81.40
Metals last +/- % +/- abs. End of the previous day
Gold 5,165.89 +0.6 30.57 5,135.32
Silver 83.41 +0.0 0.01 83.41
Platinum 2,161.64 +0.6 13.14 2,148.50
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 05, 2026 02:29 ET (07:29 GMT)
