South Korea’s stock market was halted on Friday morning after the benchmark KOSPI plunged more than 8 per cent in early trading, falling below the 5,000-point mark for the first time in nine months as the sell-off in artificial intelligence shares spread from Wall Street across Asia.
The Korea Exchange activated a 20-minute circuit breaker at 9.03am local time, suspending all stock and derivatives trading after the index slid to 4,923.47, down around 8.6 per cent. It was the 11th time this year that the exchange has been forced to halt trading, and the first since 15 October. The tech-heavy KOSDAQ index also fell more than 6 per cent and triggered its own trading curb minutes later.
Chipmakers bore the brunt of the selling. Samsung Electronics fell around 10 per cent and SK Hynix dropped about 12 per cent, while battery maker LG Energy Solution slid 4 per cent and Hyundai Motor fell nearly 7 per cent. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 tumbled more than 6 per cent, breaching the 60,000-point level to trade near 57,300.
The rout followed the worst day on Wall Street in more than a year. The Nasdaq fell 5.5 per cent on Thursday and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 12 per cent, as investors worried that the Democrats’ sweeping midterm election wins would bring tighter regulation of AI data centres and slow the investment boom that has driven markets higher.
South Korea’s market had already suffered on Thursday, when the KOSPI fell 5.3 per cent as foreign investors sold more than 3.4 trillion won of shares. Analysts said the scale of Friday’s drop suggested a genuine shift in sentiment rather than a one-day panic, with some warning that the AI trade that has powered global markets may have turned.
Sources: Reuters — “South Korea stocks plunge 8%, circuit breaker triggered as chip shares tumble” (https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-stocks-plunge-8-circuit-breaker-triggered-chip-shares-tumble-2026-11-06/) and “Analysts and investors react to AI market rout” (https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/analysts-investors-react-ai-market-rout-2026-11-06/)
