Shares advance after Wall Street rally following US midterm elections

Asian markets less heavily exposed to the AI industry mostly climbed on Thursday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 2.8% to 24,597.59, and the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% higher.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.9% to 9,003.40.

The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil was trading near $94, around its lowest level in two months.

Selling of shares related to artificial intelligence extended losses. South Korea’s Kospi briefly sank more than 4% on heavy selling of computer chipmakers. By late morning, it was trading 3.5% lower at 5,484.38.

Shares in Samsung Electronics sank 5.7%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix lost 7.4%.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.5% to 61,914.53. OpenAI investor SoftBank Group shed 5.3%, while computer chipmaking equipment company Tokyo Electron skidded 7.7% and testing equipment maker Advantest tumbled 9.4%.

Taiwan's Taiex lost 1.6%.

On Wednesday, on Wall Street, stocks of hospital owners and dollar stores serving low-income Americans helped lead the widespread rally following nationwide losses for Republicans.

Overall, the election may not matter much for the broad market in the long term. Stock prices depend more on where c...