South Korea's Kospi hits fresh high for a second straight session amid regional declines

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The Seoul city skyline early on December 16, 2020. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP) (Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

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South Korea’s Kospi touched a record high for a second straight day on Friday, powered by a rally in chip and defense stocks.

Index heavyweight SK Hynix rose 6.15%, while defense giant Hanwha Aerospace jumped 8.09%.

The index closed 2.31% up at 5,808.53.

Other Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Friday, after all three major Wall Street indexes declined overnight pressured by a drop in private credit stocks and Iran-U.S. tensions.

Prospects of a strike on Iran have risen with U.S. President Donald Trump saying that he would take a call on military action against Tehran in the next 10 days.

Oil prices extended gains in reaction to that news, with U.S. crude rising 0.93% to trade at $67.05 per barrel on Friday. Global benchmark Brent gained 0.33% to $71.9.

Traders in Asia assessed Japan’s inflation data, with headline inflation for January dipping below the Bank of Japan’s 2% target for the first time in 45 months.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.12% to 56,825.7, dragged by consumer cyclical stocks, while the Topix was 1.13% lower and closed at 3,808.48.

Shares of Sumitomo Pharma, one of the country’s largest pharmaceutical companies, were volatile in early trade, climbing as much as 6.81% before plunging. The stock closed 15.6% lower.

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Separately, Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in her first policy speech in Japan’s parliament, reportedly warned against China’s “coercion,” saying that it “intensified its attempts to unilaterally change the status quo … in the East China Sea and South China Sea.”

Takaichi also pledged to break with “excessive fiscal austerity” in Japan and increase investments in areas like AI, chips and shipbuilding, while adding that her government would not pursue “reckless fiscal policies.”

Japanese government 10-year bond yield fell 4 basis points.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.98% to close at 26,443.69, dragged by tech stocks. Mainland China’s markets were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ended marginally lower at 9,081.4.

Overnight in the U.S., private credit and software stocks were also under pressure, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding 0.54%, and the broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.28%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 0.31%.

—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Hong Kong markets are open today.