{
  "id": 12536075,
  "title": "‘Diverging’ trajectories: Taiwan dethrones South Korea atop global markets as AI trade widens",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/07/diverging-trajectories-taiwan-dethrones-south-korea-atop-global",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-07T03:25:27.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Business Times - Companies & Markets",
    "slug": "the-business-times-companies-markets",
    "url": "https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/capital-markets-currencies/diverging-trajectories-taiwan-dethrones-south-korea-atop-global-markets-ai-trade-widens"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Taiwan has overtaken South Korea as the top performer in global markets for 2026, driven by its stronger performance in the artificial intelligence trade. The Taiex Index surpassed the Kospi by 23 percentage points in the last quarter, the widest gap since the start of the new millennium. Analysts estimate that 40% of fund managers are overweight on Taiwan, compared to 25% on South Korea. This shift is attributed to Taiwan's deeper integration within the AI supply chain and a more optimistic earnings outlook. According to Vikas Pershad, a portfolio manager at M&G Investments, Taiwan's earnings come from volume, which provides broader and more stable upgrades compared to South Korea's price-driven earnings. Taiwan's market exposure extends to chip design, manufacturing, packaging, networking, and servers, offering more opportunities as AI spending increases. In contrast, South Korea's leadership is concentrated in chipmakers like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, making it more susceptible to concerns about the continuation of the memory upcycle. Despite the impressive gains, Taiwan's benchmark is still outperforming South Korea, with Taiwan's Taiex Index being the top performer among 90 equity indices tracked by Bloomberg. Strategists remain cautious, however, with some predicting a slowdown in memory price appreciation and normalization by 2028, while others believe AI demand will continue to bolster semiconductor prices.",
  "summary": "The Taiex and Kospi have traded places at the top of the global leaderboard in 2026",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Investing.com",
        "title": "Taiwan stocks lower at close of trade; Taiwan Weighted down 0.22%",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/07/taiwan-stocks-lower-at-close-of-trade-taiwan-weighted-down-0-22",
        "published": "2026-10-07T06:05:03.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}