South Korea’s KOSPI plunges 8%, trading halted

South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index plunged 8% on Monday, triggering a market-wide trading halt, as a sharp selloff in heavyweight technology stocks, led by AI memory-chip maker SK Hynix, rattled investor sentiment and erased billions of dollars in market value.

The Korea Exchange activated a circuit breaker after the benchmark index breached the 8% threshold, temporarily suspending program trading for 20 minutes to curb panic selling. The decline comes after months of strong gains for Korean equities, which had been among the world’s best-performing markets this year, fuelled largely by enthusiasm around artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks.

Technology stocks bore the brunt of the selloff. SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest memory chip manufacturers and a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI servers, fell as much as 12% in Seoul trading. Samsung Electronics too fell by 8.42%, and several other semiconductor-related counters also traded sharply lower, dragging the broader index into correction territory.

The sharp decline comes just one trading session after SK Hynix completed its blockbuster Nasdaq debut. The company priced its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) at $149 apiece, raising more than $26 billion in what is among the largest foreign listings ever in the United States. Investor demand was robust, with the ADRs opening at $170, around 14% above the offer price, before ending their debut session 12.8% higher. However, the optimism proved short-lived. Investors rushed to lock in gains after the strong U.S. debut, while concerns also resurfaced over whether the company’s near-term earnings can continue matching lofty expectations driven by the AI boom.

Indian markets open lower amid global risk-off sentiment

Indian benchmark indices also opened the week in the red, tracking weakness across Asian markets as investors reacted to rising geopolitical tensions in West Asia and a spike in crude oil prices. Sentiment remained cautious after renewed hostilities involving the U.S. and Iran fuelled concerns over potential supply disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz, raising fears of persistent inflation and delaying expectations of global interest rate cuts.

The BSE Sensex fell more than 700 points in early trade, while the NSE Nifty50 briefly slipped to the 24,000 mark before recovering some losses. At the time of reporting, the BSE Sensex was trading at 77,358.97, down 210.42 points (0.27%), while the NSE Nifty50 stood at 24,127.30, lower by 79.60 points (0.33%). Earlier in the session, the 30-share Sensex had declined as much as 712 points to an intraday low of 76,857.43, while the Nifty touched 24,000.20, its lowest level of the day.

Financials, auto and metal stocks were among the biggest drags on the benchmarks, mirroring the broader risk-off mood across regional markets. The weakness in domestic equities came even as benchmark indices trimmed a part of their early losses, with investors closely watching global developments for further direction.