South Korean stocks rise 2% to lead gains in Asia after opposition leader wins presidential election

Asia-Pacific markets advanced Wednesday after Wall Street rose on the back of a tech rally, led by chipmaker Nvidia, with South Korean stocks leading gains.

Shares in the artificial intelligence darling advanced nearly 3%, extending Monday’s gains and driving Nvidia’s market cap past Microsoft‘s for the first time since January. Chip companies Broadcom and Micron Technology rose more than 3% and 4%, respectively.

South Korean markets rose as opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung won the presidential election. The Kospi index popped 2.43% to hit its highest level since August last year, while the small-cap Kosdaq advanced 1.39%.

Lee’s “election pledge has placed considerable weight on enhancing the value of the Korean stock market,” John Cho, Korea equity portfolio manager at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said in a note.

His plan to amend the commercial law, which will broaden the legal duties of board members to include protecting the interests of minority shareholders, will “encourage boards to make fewer value-destructive decisions and more value-accretive ones,” Cho explained.

Looking ahead, he expects the incoming South Korean government to adopt aggressive fiscal stimulus to revive the domestic economy while also “pragmatically” handling international trade matters.

“We believe that the domestic economy is set to rebound from a low base in 2H 2024 / 1H 2025, and we continue to be positive on the globally competitive and uniquely positioned manufacturers, including HBMs [high bandwidth memory] for AI, health and beauty, and heavy industries,” Cho added in a Wednesday note.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 climbed 0.82%, while the broader Topix index rose 0.53%.

Mainland China’s CSI 300 index moved up 0.52%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.72%

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.77%. The country’s economy grew 1.3% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, lower than the estimated 1.5% growth among economists polled by Reuters. The latest reading was unchanged from the previous quarter’s 1.3% year-on-year growth.

Meanwhile, India’s benchmark Nifty 50 advanced 0.15% while the BSE Sensex ticked up 0.11%.

U.S. futures were little changed after Wall Street rose on a tech rally and a better-than-expected jobs report showing that the U.S.’ labor market is holding up despite concerns of risks stemming from tariffs.

Overnight stateside, the broad-based S&P 500 index added 0.58% to close at 5,970.37, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 214.16 points, or 0.51%, ending at 42,519.64. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.81% to settle at 19,398.96.

The U.S. economic outlook “remains dimmed by tariffs, although the timing of the impact is now more delayed,” said Preston Caldwell, chief U.S. economist at Morningstar.

“The deleterious demand-side impact from tariffs looks diminished for now, with financial conditions having improved and President Donald Trump evincing some willingness to respond to deteriorating economic conditions by pulling back on tariffs,” he wrote in a June 3 outlook report.

The risk of recession in the U.S. now looks “closer to 25%,” rather than the 35% to 40% assessed in April, Caldwell said.

— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han, Sean Conlon and Sarah Min contributed to this report.