South Korea’s Kospi is down sharply, rising 10%, on track for its best day since 2008.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped as much as 12% on Thursday, halting a rebound from its worst session, and on track to close at its daily high, data from LSEG showed.

The index then launched some gains to trade almost 10% higher.

Index heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics rose more than 15% and 14%, respectively. The South Korean won strengthened 0.14% and last traded at 1,460.60 against the dollar.

The small-cap Kosdaq rose more than 11%.

The Korea Exchange on Thursday suspended trading briefly on both the benchmark KOSPI index and the Kosdaq after a sharp session.

The Kospi index was down 12% on Wednesday, its worst one-day decline.

The rally in South Korea’s stock market was largely driven by a recovery in increased sales, said Daniel Yoo, global market analyst at Yuanta Securities. “It has nothing to do with values,” he said.

A wave of calls among stock traders had started selling heavily earlier in the week, but once these positions were freed up the market began to recover, he said.

“The sale [on Wednesday] it was mainly due to the risk facing oil prices from the ongoing political developments,” said Raisah Rasid, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management.

“Since South Korea is a major exporter of crude oil, uncertainty about where oil prices will rise could weigh on the current account and add to inflation,” he said.

As oil prices began to stabilize, risk sentiment improved and Korean equities rose, said market watchers.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that Washington will unveil a series of measures aimed at limiting the flow of oil through the Persian Gulf, indicating that the administration is ready to intervene as political tensions threaten one of the world’s most important routes.

In addition, demand-supply capabilities in the memory chip space are likely to remain strong throughout this year and possibly next, JPMorgan’s Rasid said, adding that the long-term drivers of Korean infrastructure remain stable. Memory leaders Samsung and SK Hynix make up about 50 percent of the index, Morningstar data showed.

Similarly, Aberdeen Investments’ Kieron Poon, director of investment in Asian equities, said that the sales on Wednesday also increased with the Korean market recovering after a public holiday on Monday, so the fall on Tuesday reflected uncertainty and losses.

Other Asia-Pacific markets also jumped on Thursday, rising again after several days of heavy losses as sentiment improved following overnight gains on Wall Street and eased concerns over rising oil prices.

of Australia S&P/ASX 200 changed to +0.1%.

of Japan Nikkei 225 rose 2.7%, after slipping 3% in the previous quarter.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index is up 1%, while the CSI 300 rose 0.86%.

Taiwan’s benchmark index Taiex jumped more than 4%.

“Global markets are likely to remain volatile in the near term, and there is still the potential for further declines if global risks persist as the Iran war continues,” Aberdeen’s Poon said.

All eyes are on China’s main legislative session called the “Two Sessions,” which began on Wednesday.

China on Thursday set its GDP growth expectations for 2026 at 4.5% to 5%, the lowest expectations on record going back to the early 1990s – according to a copy of a government service report seen by CNBC, as Beijing struggles with continued repression and trade tensions with the US.

The target shows a decrease from the “around 5%” set in the last three years and a modest target so far for the second world economy, except for 2020 when Beijing did not suspend the growth target due to the epidemic.

Beijing also kept last year’s budget deficit at “up to 4%” of GDP, as the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislative body, holds its annual meeting this week.

Throughout the night in the US, stocks rose, building on the momentum seen in the previous quarter, as the rise in oil prices reversed following developments in the US-Israeli war on Iran and fears about the expansion of the US economy subsided.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 238.14 points, or 0.49%, to close at 48,739.41. The 30-stock index took three days of losses. The S&P 500 gained 0.78% and ended at 6,869.50, while Nasdaq Composite moved 1.29% higher and settled at 22,807.48.

Technology stocks supported the broader market, especially those in the chips space. Vadivelu Comedy Micron Technology and Advanced Micro Devices each increased by more than 5%. Broadcom and Nvidia rose more than 1% each.