Mainland stocks ended higher on Thursday as tech shares resumed their record-breaking rally spurred by chip giant Micron's blowout earnings.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed 335 points, or 1.4 percent, down at a one-year low of 23,076 on turnover of HK$325.78 billion.

The tech index dropped 73 points, or 1.6 percent, to a 14-month low of 4,405 while the China enterprises index fell 156 points, or 2 percent, to 7,608.

Market heavyweight Alibaba slid 4.4 percent and Tencent lost 1.7 percent.

Up north, the Shanghai Composite Index ended the day up nine points, or 0.23 percent, at 4,120.

The Shenzhen Component Index was 292 points, or 1.82 percent, higher at 16,344 while the ChiNext was 120 points, or 2.84 percent, up at 4,371.

Chipmaker GigaDevice jumped 10 percent, Naura Technology added 3.6 percent and SMIC gained 3.6 percent, all hitting fresh peaks during the session.

"The up-cycle in the overseas AI industry has yet to show signs of turning, and the structural trend of concentrated buying is unlikely to end any time soon," analysts at Green Fund said in a note.

Although volatility in richly valued technology stocks may intensify in the short term, the medium- to long-term growth trends in key themes such as computing-power chips, semiconductor equipment and advanced packaging remain intact, they said.

"We remain positive on China's AI tech hardware names for the rest of the year given strong earnings momentum, fervent retail participation and fresh capital from new IPOs which would add further fuel for the AI build-out," said James Wang, head of China strategy at UBS Investment Bank Research.

Among other winners, the investment banking and brokerage index jumped 3.4 percent and the CSI Liquor Index added 2.1 percent.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei share average snapped two straight sessions of declines to end 3,191 points, or 4.61 percent, higher at a record close of rose more than four percent on Thursday to notch a record closing high of 72,366.

The broader Topix rose 52 points, or 1.33 percent, to 4,016.

In Seoul, the Kospi closed points, or 5.42 percent, at 8,930, continuing its recovery for a second session from a nearly 10 percent drop on Tuesday, its steepest since March. (Reuters/Xinhua)


Edited by Tony Sabine