Seoul: South Korean stocks traded sharply lower late Wednesday morning as big-cap tech shares echoed overnight losses of U.S. tech giants sparked by concerns over a bubble in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) had dipped 60.96 points, or 1.93 percent, to 3,090.6 as of 11:20 a.m.
According to Yonhap News Agency, overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite closed 1.46 percent lower and the S and P 500 shed 0.59 percent after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned that the AI market may be in a bubble like the dot-com bubble during the late 1990s, which led to a stock market crash in the early 2000s. AI chip giant Nvidia lost 3.5 percent, AMD shed 5.44 percent, and TSMC slipped 3.61 percent.
Investor sentiment was also dampened by heightened caution ahead of the Jackson Hole economic policy symposium, slated for Friday (U.S. time), where Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will make a speech on his outlook for the economy. In Seoul, chip giant SK hynix slid 3.33 percent, while its rival Samsung Electronics gained 0.14 percent.
Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution lost 0.91 percent, and major bio firm Samsung Biologics went down 0.98 percent. Defense powerhouse Hanwha Aerospace also dipped 2.66 percent, and nuclear power plant builder Doosan Enerbility nosedived 10.42 percent.
Major shipbuilders also lost ground, with HD Hyundai Heavy losing 2.68 percent and Hanwha Ocean shooting down 4.62 percent. IT and financial shares were also weak, with internet portal operator Naver retreating 2 percent and KB Financial decreasing 2.83 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,398.6 won against the greenback at 11:20 a.m., down 7.7 won from the previous session.