Nikkei and Kospi: Chip and AI stocks in Asia are losing significantly – investors are waiting for US balance sheets

Nikkei and Kospi: Chip and AI stocks in Asia are losing significantly

In Asia, stock markets in Japan and South Korea fell sharply on Tuesday. The trigger was price losses in semiconductor stocks in the USA and concerns about rising US inflation.

Tokyo. The most important stock indices in Japan and South Korea fell significantly on Tuesday. Concerns about a new memory chip architecture from the Chinese semiconductor manufacturer CXMT and the high price level in the USA also caused a broad sell-off of tech stocks in Asia.

South Korea was particularly hard hit, where the leading Kospi index temporarily fell by more than seven percent on Tuesday, reaching its weakest level since the end of July.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index, which also includes many technology companies, lost 1.9 percent to 67,700 points.

The broader Topix went out of trading little changed at 4107 points.

In South Korea, the price fall happened so quickly that the stock market triggered a “sell-side sidecar” at 9:48 a.m. local time. Programmatic sell orders are suspended for five minutes. The rule applies if the Kospi 200 future is five percent or more in the red for at least one minute.

Unlike a “circuit breaker,” which interrupts all trading, regular stock trading continues. The measure is intended to prevent automated sales from accelerating the downward trend. At the same time, it gives investors a short breathing space to reassess the situation.

Other Asian markets reacted mostly weaker. Taiwan's leading index Taiex has now fallen by more than two percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and the Shanghai Composite Index have each fallen by around one percent. Singapore's Straits Times Index, however, was slightly up.