European natural gas prices rose as much as 5.7% to €55.39/MWh.

At the midday close, the Hang Seng Index fell 1.75% and the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 1.87%; market turnover was HKD 149.6 bln. Sector losers included insurance, semiconductors and power-equipment stocks; optical communications, PCB-related names and gold outperformed. Notable movers: MINIMAX-W (00100.HK) rose over 16%; 02476.HK and 00815.HK gained more than 7%; 03308.HK added over 5%; AIA Group (01299.HK) fell more than 8%; 03277.HK dropped over 6%; SMIC (00981.HK) fell over 4%.

With the iPhone 18 series and foldable iPhone Ultra launch weeks away, TSMC's N2 process is producing A20 Pro wafers with strong yields and ample capacity, but a severe mobile DRAM shortage is preventing completed wafers from being packaged, creating inventory buildup and pressuring Apple and its supply-chain stocking. Apple and its assemblers are urgently seeking additional mobile DRAM; Apple currently relies mainly on Micron and also purchases from SK Hynix and Samsung. TSMC's N2 is not the shipping bottleneck—A20 Pro production is effectively ready, Tim Culpan said.