South Korea's benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index or KOSPI closed down 3.3 percent or 225.54 points to close at 6,684. 37, the biggest drop in the region.
Tokyo fell 0.8 percent and Shanghai finished close to flat, a gap that comes down to concentration. By market value, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix together account for roughly half the main board. A global de-rating of the AI trade and a jump in U.S. rate-hike odds therefore land on the same two stocks.
Samsung Electronics fell 4.1 percent to 249,000 won ($185.00). SK hynix fell 6.4 percent to 1,697,000 won ($1,260.70). The fall was more than half again the drop in Samsung. Traders read the gap as its greater earnings exposure to high-bandwidth memory sold into AI servers.
Foreign investors net sold 3.29 trillion won ($2.44 billion) on the main board and institutions sold 1.17 trillion won ($870.3 million). Individuals absorbed 2.97 trillion won ($2.21 billion) of that.
The main index in Seoul opened at 6,692.61 and rallied as far as 6,773.97. It then broke to 6,654.82 before settling. Program trading ran 2.74 trillion won ($2.03 billion) net negative.
The junior KOSDAQ fell 1.7 percent to 806.79, a milder session because the junior board carries far less of the memory complex.
The rate leg of the selling is a two-day story. The Federal Open Market Committee meets on Tuesday and Wednesday. After a hotter-than-expected August inflation reading, futures markets moved to price a quarter-point increase as close to certain. That would be the first U.S. hike since 2023.
Traders read the oil move as the mechanism. Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline has stayed shut since a drone strike last week. Oman announced over the weekend that talks between Gulf states and Iran on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz had been postponed.
Not everything sold. KB Financial Group rose 2.1 percent to 181,600 won ($134.90), the pattern of a market repositioning for higher rates rather than fleeing them.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 518.35 points, or 0.8 percent, to 63,492.99. The damage there was concentrated rather than broad.
SoftBank Group fell 10.7 percent to 5,839 yen after OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said the company would not list this year. He also backed Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei's call for the industry to slow down. SoftBank's committed investment in OpenAI is approaching $65 billion, and a listing had been the market's assumed exit.
Kioxia Holdings fell 6.4 percent to 50,590 yen and Advantest fell 2.0 percent to 31,080 yen.
Chinese equities were the outlier. The composite index in Shanghai moved little, with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation lower and WuXi AppTec sharply higher. Investors read that chip complex as priced off domestic substitution rather than the AI capital-expenditure cycle now being questioned.
The won weakened 2.30 won against the dollar to 1,346.10.
One session erased the whole of last week's 3.3 percent gain. The KOSPI now sits more than 350 points below the 7,000 level it reclaimed on September 9 for the first time in 33 sessions. The retail bid has been reliable through this cycle and has not been enough. Foreign flows set direction on this market, and nothing before Thursday's Seoul open is likely to bring them back.
AJP Takeaways
- KOSPI closed down 3.3 percent, the heaviest loss in the region, shedding 225.54 points to 6,684.37 as foreign investors net sold 3.29 trillion won ($2.44 billion) on the main board.
- SK hynix fell 6.4 percent to 1,697,000 won ($1,260.70), a steeper drop than the 4.1 percent decline at Samsung Electronics, on two stocks that together account for roughly half the main board by market value.
- SoftBank Group fell 10.7 percent to 5,839 yen after OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said the company would not list this year, removing the exit the market had assumed for an investment approaching $65 billion.
Tags: KOSPI, KOSDAQ, Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, KB Financial Group, Nikkei 225, SoftBank Group, OpenAI, Anthropic, Kioxia Holdings, Advantest, WuXi AppTec, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, Federal Open Market Committee, Strait of Hormuz
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