JAPANThe Nikkei 225 surged 4.61% to 72,366 on Thursday — its best session in recent weeks — driven by AI semiconductor optimism following Micron's earnings and relief from falling oil prices, which reduce Japan's import bill as an energy-dependent economy. Top gainers included Advantest (+14.90%), Taiyo Yuden (+11.70%) and Screen Holdings (+8.99%), all directly exposed to the global AI chip supply chain. The Bank of Japan raised its short-term policy rate by 25bp to 1.00% — its highest level since 1995 — and announced a reduction in monthly JGB purchases; Deputy Governor Uchida's post-meeting remarks were interpreted as hawkish, reinforcing market expectations of further normalisation.
CHINAThe Hang Seng Index fell 1.43% to 23,076.91, briefly breaching 23,000 for the first time in a year, after Alibaba Group slumped 4.4% to HK$95 — a 16-month low — following Anthropic's accusation that it 'illicitly' extracted capabilities from the Claude AI model. The episode raises questions about the competitive positioning of Chinese AI firms and deepens US-China technology tensions. The Shanghai Composite rose modestly (+0.23% to 4,120) while Shenzhen advanced 1.82%, with domestic chipmakers including Hygon Information Technology (+6.88%) and Eoptolink Technology (+9.94%) outperforming on Micron's demand read-through.
PBOCThe People's Bank of China announced it will introduce overnight reverse repo operations on June 29–30 as part of its ongoing monetary policy framework reform, complementing the existing seven-day reverse repo rate of 1.4%. Separately, China's property sector continued to weigh on the economy, with property investment down 16.2% year-on-year in the first five months of 2026, though first-tier city new-home prices rose for a third consecutive month, suggesting targeted policy support may be gaining traction in top-tier markets.