A pedestrian passes by an electronic quote board displaying the Nikkei Stock Average at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on March 23, 2026 in Tokyo.
Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty Images
South Korean stocks tumbled on Friday, leading losses in the region, as weakness in Wall Street’s tech stocks spread to Asia overnight, dragging down declines in benchmark indexes.
The Kospi closed Friday’s trading 5.54% lower at 8,160.59. Leading companies in the index, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, fell 6.40% and 9.92%, respectively. The small-cap Kosdaq index fell 4.50%.
In a move that could put further pressure on South Korea’s technology sector, the country’s labor minister urged its biggest technology companies to further distribute profits from the AI-driven semiconductor boom to workers and suppliers, saying record profits risk exacerbating income inequality.
Japanese benchmark Nikkei Stock Average It fell 1.31% to 66,588.12.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.70% to 8,625.10.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.11% in the first hour of trading, while mainland China’s CSI300 index fell 1.79% to 4,816.92.
indian nifty 50 The BSE Sensex was flat as of 1pm local time (3:30am ET), albeit slightly lower in volatile trading.
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high overnight, while the Nasdaq Composite Index underperformed as investors appeared to opt for non-tech stocks instead of chip stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 874.86 points (1.73%) across 30 stocks to close at a record high of 51,561.93. The Nasdaq fell 0.09% to end at 26,830.96, while the S&P 500 rose 0.41% to 7,584.31.
This rotation was driven by a sharp decline in Broadcom stock, causing investors to reduce their exposure to AI stocks. The company’s fiscal second-quarter sales fell more than 12% after lower-than-expected sales. Chip names that led the latest leg of gains as the market rose to record levels fell broadly. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) fell more than 1%. Arm Holdings fell more than 4% and Micron Technology fell nearly 8%.
Concerns about the Middle East also weighed on stock prices. Mixed messages have recently emerged from the war-ending negotiations that have rattled world markets and caused oil and gasoline prices to soar.
—CNBC’s Spencer Kimball and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.
