Asia stocks roar back as Taiwan jumps 6%, Nvidia probe rattles AI trade

Asian stocks rallied on Monday, following a recovery on Wall Street, although concerns over an investigation involving Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang tempered gains as investors reassessed the outlook for the artificial intelligence trade.

The MSCI Asia Pacific index climbed 2.3%, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 advancing 3.5% and South Korea’s KOSPI rising 1.6%. Taiwan’s Taiex jumped as much as 6.4%, its biggest advance since July, while the TOPIX gained 3.4%. The rebound followed a turbulent week in which Japanese and Taiwanese equities entered bear-market territory and Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both lost more than 16%.

A gauge of U.S. semiconductor stocks rose 4.2% late last week as investors bought beaten-down shares amid easing concerns that a Democratic-controlled Congress would impose tighter restrictions on the AI industry following the party’s sweeping midterm victories. The S&P 500 nevertheless recorded its steepest weekly decline since April 2025, while the Nasdaq 100 lost $2.3 trillion in market value on Thursday alone.

Nvidia futures initially fell as much as 1% after the company's board announced an independent investigation into reports that Huang had been targeted in a foreign intelligence operation. Huang had acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife, while the board said it had no reason to believe Nvidia secrets or U.S. national security had been compromised.

Nasdaq 100 futures were last up 0.7% and S&P 500 futures had gained 0.6%.

Taiwan leads rebound as authorities move to stabilise markets

Taiwan’s Taiex recovered from a seven-session losing streak, its longest since 2022, after the market regulator and finance ministry announced measures to restore investor confidence.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and MediaTek each climbed at least 6%, leading the rebound after the technology-heavy market entered bear territory last week.

The Financial Supervisory Commission cut the permitted volume of intraday short-selling orders using borrowed securities to 3% of a stock’s average daily trading volume over the previous 30 sessions, from 30%. It also raised the minimum margin requirement for short-selling to 130% from 90%.

Authorities said the NT$500 billion ($15.2 billion) national stock stabilisation fund remained available for deployment.

Meanwhile, Brent crude fell 0.9% to $97.44 a barrel as U.S. President Donald Trump said further strikes on Iran were unlikely if negotiations over its nuclear programme made progress.

Investors were also awaiting U.S. inflation data on Tuesday for clues on the interest-rate outlook, with markets pricing in nearly an 80% probability of a Federal Reserve rate increase by year-end.

China, India and regional markets show mixed performance

Chinese and Indian equities also attracted renewed demand as investors rotated away from AI-exposed markets. Mainland China’s CSI 300 rose 0.3% and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.5%, while India’s Nifty 50 fell 0.2%.

China's October inflation figures offered a mixed signal. Higher energy and commodity costs lifted factory-gate prices, but weak domestic demand meant many manufacturers struggled to pass those increases on to customers, squeezing margins.

Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.2%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 and New Zealand’s NZX 50 slipped 0.2%, respectively, and Singapore’s Straits Times Index was unchanged. Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite gained 0.8%, while Malaysia’s KLCI fell 1.2%.

The Philippines’ PSEi Composite dropped 0.7% as the country’s economy expanded just 2.1% year-on-year in the third quarter, slowing from 2.4% in the second quarter and 4% in the same period last year.

ANZ Group Holdings shares fell 4.5% to A$38.62 despite the Australian lender reporting full-year cash profit of A$7.59 billion, narrowly exceeding analyst expectations. The bank also increased provisions amid a more volatile economic environment.

The latest rebound offers some relief after last week's sharp technology-led losses, but investors remain cautious about AI valuations, regulatory risks and the scale of infrastructure spending. Attention now turns to U.S. inflation data and further evidence of whether the technology sector can sustain its growth.