South Korea stocks fall over 5% as tech heavyweights follow plunge in Wall Street's AI-linked names

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A pedestrian walks past an electronic quotation board displaying the Nikkei 225 stock prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on March 23, 2026.

Kazuhiro Nogi | Afp | Getty Images

South Korea stocks plunged Friday, leading losses in the region, as the slump in Wall Street tech names overnight spread into Asia, dragging benchmark indexes lower.

The Kospi ended Friday's session 5.54% lower at 8,160.59. Index heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dropped 6.40% and 9.92%, respectively. The small-cap Kosdaq index fell 4.50%.

In a move that could pressure South Korea's tech sector further, the country's labor minister urged its biggest technology companies to distribute more of the gains from the AI-driven semiconductor boom with workers and suppliers, saying record profits risk exacerbating income inequality.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 1.31% to 66,588.12.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.70% to 8,625.10.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.11% in its last hour of trade, while mainland China's CSI 300 dropped 1.79% to 4,816.92.

India's Nifty 50 was marginally lower in choppy trade, while the BSE Sensex was flat as of 1:00 p.m. loca;l time (3:30 a.m. ET)

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied to a fresh all-time high, while the Nasdaq Composite underperformed as investors appeared to rotate out of chip names in favor of non-tech stocks.

The 30-stock Dow jumped 874.86 points, or 1.73%, to close at a record 51,561.93. The Nasdaq lost 0.09% and ended at 26,830.96, while the S&P 500 rose 0.41% to 7,584.31.

The rotation was sparked by a sell-off in Broadcom that led investors to pare exposure to AI-linked stocks. The chipmaker slid more than 12% after its fiscal second-quarter revenue missed estimates. Chip names, which led the latest leg higher in the market's rally to record levels, fell broadly. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) lost more than 1%. Arm Holdings shed more than 4%, while Micron Technology fell close to 8%.

Stocks also came under pressure on Middle East worries. Mixed messages have emerged recently out of negotiations to end the war, which has upset global markets and caused oil and gasoline prices to spike.

_— CNBC's Spencer Kimball and _Lisa Kailai Han__contributed to this report.

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