A gauge of Asian shares snapped a two-day gain, with Korean chipmakers SK Hynix Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. weighing as the nation’s markets reopened after the Lunar New Year holidays.

SK Hynix's shares slumped, hit by the shock from Chinese artificial-intelligence startup DeepSeek as stock trading resumed in South Korea after a four-day holiday.

SK hynix Inc. reported financial results for 2024, with revenues surging 102% to 66.19 trillion won ($46.34 billion), driven by explosive demand for artificial intelligence memory products.

Asian equities fell Friday, pressured by technology companies. US futures climbed after robust results from Apple Inc.

Apple and other big U.S. companies reporting fatter profits than expected are helping stock indexes shave off more of their sharp losses from the start of the week.

The KSE-100 witnessed strong buying for the major part of the day, hitting an intra-day high of 115,106.99, a gain of around 1,900 points as compared to the previous close. However, some late-session selling trimmed the intra-day gains.

Massive buying was witnessed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 gaining nearly 1,700 points during the first half of the trading session on Friday. At 12pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 114,865.61, an increase of 1,659.21 points or 1.47%.

US and European stock futures gained after strong earnings from Apple Inc. and Intel Corp. boosted sentiment, while the dollar also rose as traders brace for President Donald trump’s tariffs announcements on Saturday.

SK hynix has recorded best-ever yearly performance with 66.1930 trillion won in revenues, 23.4673 trillion won in operating profit (with an operating margin of 35%), and 19.7969 trillion won in net profit (with a net margin of 30%).

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty are expected to open a tad lower on Friday, following negative trend at Gift Nifty and mixed cues from global markets.

Trump aims to create distance between China and Russia as Taiwan tensions rise Trump seeks to redefine U.S. relations with major global players amid escalating tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.