South Korea’s Kospi breached the 5,000-point mark on Thursday as Asian markets rallied after US President Donald Trump backed off his threat to impose tariffs on European countries over Greenland.
Trump also said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he would not use force to take over the Arctic island, allaying jitters about possible US military action, adding that he had “formed the framework for a future agreement on Greenland” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
The Kospi was last up 1.99%, while the Kosdaq index of small companies gained 1.73%.
Battery maker Samsung SDI rose 15.28%, while conglomerate Doosan gained 8.61% and heavyweight Samsung Electronics rose 3.95%.
The country’s economy unexpectedly shrank by 0.3% on a quarterly basis between October and December, the sharpest contraction since 2022.
Gross domestic product grew by 1.5% on an annual basis, while economic growth for the whole year slowed to 1%, which is the weakest since 2020, when production fell by 0.7% during the pandemic, reports SEEbiz.
Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.87%, on track to snap a five-day losing streak, while the Topix rose 0.88%. Japan released its December trade data today, with export growth of 5.1% below analysts’ estimates polled by Reuters.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng bucked the trend, falling slightly and recording losses mainly in basic materials stocks, while mainland China’s CSI 300 was flat.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.71%, after falling in the previous session.
