Asian markets experienced a significant rally on Friday, with South Korea’s KOSPI rising as much as 17% and Taiwan’s market gaining over 7%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 also jumped more than 5% as traders bought up battered chipmaker shares.

The rally came after a scorching selloff in tech stocks earlier in the week. Despite the gains, the KOSPI was still on track to lose almost 25% in July, marking its largest monthly loss since the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

Currency markets were also affected by the Bank of Japan’s decision to keep interest rates on hold, which led to a decline in the value of the yen. The yen fell to 160.69 after the decision, which was in line with market expectations.

Stocks took their cues from Wall Street’s gains on Thursday, with S&P 500 e-mini futures up 0.3% in Asian trade. Strong earnings from Amazon and Sony also contributed to the rally.

Korean chipmaking heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix soared nearly 30% on Friday, while other Asian markets also experienced significant gains.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.