Asian stock markets climb after earlier tech rout

Asian stock markets have rebounded after last week’s tech rout triggered by the Democratic Party’s sweeping victory in the US midterm elections.

Key indexes in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong made substantial gains on Monday, following a rebound on Wall Street on Friday.

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 3.45 percent as of 04:00 GMT.

In Taipei, the Taiex was 5.72 percent higher, while the Kospi in Seoul was up 1.68 percent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.19 percent.

Futures for Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were up 0.60 percent and 0.59 percent, respectively.

They had dipped earlier following US-based chip giant Nvidia’s announcement that it would investigate its CEO over a romantic relationship he conducted with a woman accused of being a Chinese spy.

Nvidia’s board of directors said that while it had confidence in CEO Jensen Huang and had no reason to believe that national security or company secrets were compromised, an independent inquiry would examine “all available information”.

The board said Huang supported the inquiry and pledged his full cooperation.

“The Board prioritizes U.S. national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders,” the company said.

The stock market rebound comes after the US midterm results prompted a $2.5 trillion sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday amid concerns that Democratic-controlled legislatures could slow the rollout of data centres used to power AI.

The tech rout spilled into Asia on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 and Kospi plunging about 6 percent and 9 percent, respectively, and the Hang Seng Index dropping more than 1 percent.