Seoul's Kospi surged as much as 3.6 percent on Thursday, extending a roughly 20 percent rebound from its August 6 intra-day trough and narrowing the damage from a 40 percent slump since June. Gains were driven by SK Hynix and Samsung after Tokyo added more than one percent and Shanghai and Shenzhen edged higher on a 20 percent Lenovo jump following quarterly earnings.
The advance followed news that U.S. consumer prices rose 0.1 percent in July, meeting forecasts and holding inflation above the Federal Reserve's two-percent target for a 65th consecutive month. Market pricing for a September rate hike fell to 34 percent, down from 55 percent a week earlier, while the 10-year Treasury yield retreated to 4.678 percent.
Elsewhere, the MSCI All Country World Index neared its intraday record, gold slipped to $4,397.88 an ounce, and the People's Bank of China injected 349 billion yuan into the banking system.