HONG KONG (AP) — South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index dropped more than 7% on Tuesday on a sell-off of chip shares, and Asian shares mostly declined after U.S. stocks ended mixed.
The Kospi index was down 7.4% to 5,914.35, its lowest level since late July. It reached an all-time high in June after crossing 9,000, supercharged by the global artificial intelligence boom.
Samsung Electronics fell 7.7%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix plunged 8.8%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 2.5% to 67,292.39. Chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron fell 6.6%. SoftBank Group, an OpenAI investor, lost 8%.