South Korean Stocks Tumble Nearly 6% on Profit-Taking
Quick Look
- South Korean stocks plunged nearly 6% on Friday, with the KOSPI index falling 5.81% to 8,411.21, as investors took profits after recent AI-driven rallies.
- Trading was halted briefly due to a circuit breaker.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
South Korean stocks experienced a significant drop on Friday, reversing recent gains driven by artificial intelligence-related companies. The market rout led to the activation of a circuit breaker, halting trading.
SEOUL, June 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks tumbled nearly 6 percent Friday as investors locked in profits after recent rallies driven by stocks related to artificial intelligence (AI).
The Korean won gained against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 519.09 points, or 5.81 percent, to close at 8,411.21, after falling as low as 8,126.84.
The market rout came after the KOSPI rallied by 5.42 percent gain on Thursday and racked up a 3.26 percent rise on Wednesday.
The index opened 1.31 percent lower and extended its losses to decline more than 8 percent, inciting the bourse operator to activate a circuit breaker at 12:10 p.m. and halt trading of KOSPI shares for 20 minutes.
Overnight on Wall Street, tech heavyweights finished mixed as Micron Technology jumped 15.7 percent on strong earnings, while Apple dropped 6.1 percent after the company hiked prices on many of its products due to expensive memory chips.
Open Questions
- Will the KOSPI recover in the short term?
- What is the outlook for AI stocks?
