South Korean shares surge after chip stock rout
31 minutes ago
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Share prices jumped in South Korea on Friday, partly reversing a three-day rout that wiped hundreds of billions of dollars off the value of the country’s stock market
The benchmark Kospi index was almost 17% higher in afternoon trading, driven by chip makers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics
It came after earnings updates from US technology giants Amazon and Microsoft helped boost optimism over the huge amounts of money being invested in artificial intelligence (AI). South Korean regulators have also announced measures aimed at curbing this week’s sell-off
Surging chip stocks also helped push markets in Japan and Taiwan higher
SK Hynix, which is a major supplier to leading AI chip firm Nvidia, saw its shares gain more than 17%, while Samsung was up by 23%
Both firms had seen their stock market value slump this week as a sell-off in artificial intelligence-related stocks deepened
Investors had become concerned over the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in AI by big technology firms
In recent months stock market trading has been particularly volatile in South Korea as it has attracted large numbers of retail investors
South Korea’s tech-heavy Kospi has been halted multiple times this year under a stock market mechanism known as a circuit breaker, which is designed to calm panic selling
The index had more than doubled in value this year and despite a series of big falls since hitting a record high in mid-June it is still 50% higher than it was at the end of 2025
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