South Korea's Kospi has worst week since 2008 as chip stocks slump; Nikkei falls 5.4%

South Korea’s Kospi index had its biggest weekly fall since October 2008, as concerns about AI spending and US interest rates hit the country’s chipmakers.

The Kospi rose 113.83 points, or 2.05%, on Friday 16 October to close at 5,668.05, Yonhap reported. It still lost 14.46% over the week, Benzinga reported, the steepest weekly drop since October 2008, when it fell 20.5%. On Thursday the index fell 7.57% and a circuit breaker paused trading for 20 minutes.

Samsung Electronics fell 17.8% over the week and SK hynix dropped 24.3%, The Korea Herald reported, citing Korea Exchange data. For both companies, it was the steepest weekly decline since 2008. Foreign investors sold a net 11.21 trillion won of Kospi-listed shares during the week. The Herald cited concerns about US interest rates, returns on AI investment and competition from Chinese memory maker ChangXin Memory Technologies. South Korea’s finance ministry said it would step up market monitoring, Reuters reported.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.39% on Friday to 65,324.29, according to Nikkei Indexes. That left it 5.37% below its close of 69,030.92 on 9 October.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.52% on Friday to 24,186.83 and ended the week down 0.10%. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.24% to 3,716.28 but fell 2.56% for the week, its fourth weekly decline in a row, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

China is due to release third-quarter economic data on Monday 19 October at a State Council Information Office press conference, Caixin reported.