SoftBank Surges 10% as U.S.-Iran Deal Lifts Asia Tech
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- SoftBank jumped 10% on Monday, the best performer among major Asian tech stocks, as investors cheered news of a U.S.-Iran deal to end the Middle East conflict.
- Tokyo Electron gained 7% and Advantest rose 7.67% in the same session, while South Korean memory chip heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix added 4.5% and 6.42% respectively.
- TSMC climbed 2.81% and Foxconn added 2.69%, extending a broad tech rally as risk-on sentiment swept Asian markets.
- Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each crossed $1 trillion in market valuation last month, while SoftBank recently became Japan's most valuable company, giving the latest surge outsized index weight.
- Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced Sunday that both Iran and the U.S. agreed to 'immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts,' with Pakistan serving as mediator and the official signing ceremony scheduled for Friday, June 19, in Switzerland.
- President Donald Trump confirmed on Truth Social that the deal reopens the Strait of Hormuz without a toll system and that the U.S. will end its naval blockade of Iran.
- Ecaterina Bigos, BNP Paribas Asset Management's CIO of core investments Asia ex Japan, said investors are 'trying to rebalance some parts of the portfolios' but still want to stay in 'that race of AI.'
Why it matters: Trillion-dollar Asian tech names—Samsung, SK Hynix, and Japan's most valuable company SoftBank—are now tethered to Middle East de-escalation, with a 10% one-day swing on geopolitical headlines. Reopening the Strait of Hormuz removes a key oil supply risk that had been priced into the region's risk premium, and the June 19 signing in Switzerland leaves a two-week window where the rally trades on diplomacy, not signed paper.
