South Korean shares plunge amid global tech selloff
South Korean shares plunged nearly 3 percent on Wednesday, led by a sharp selloff in big-cap technology stocks, as concerns over a potential artificial intelligence (AI) bubble rattled Wall Street overnight.
The Korean won also weakened sharply against the U.S. dollar, News.Az reports, citing Yonhap.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slid 117.32 points, or 2.85 percent, to close at 4,004.42 after touching an intraday low of 3,867.81. The index retreated below the 4,200 mark just two days after hitting the milestone. The tech-heavy KOSDAQ dropped 16.54 points, or 2.84 percent, to end at 565.4.
The steep fall prompted the Korea Exchange to issue a sidecar at 9:46 a.m., halting program sell orders for five minutes after KOSPI 200 futures plunged more than 5 percent for over a minute. Another sidecar was triggered at 10:26 a.m. for KOSDAQ shares.
It marked the first sidecar activation for KOSPI since April 7 and the first for KOSDAQ since August 5 last year.
Trading volume was heavy, totaling 583.5 million shares worth 28.5 trillion won (US$19.7 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 730 to 173.
Foreign and institutional investors offloaded local shares worth 2.5 trillion won and 79.3 billion won, respectively, offsetting retail investors’ net purchase of 2.57 billion won.
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