Shows Good Morning America ShopGMA Interest Successfully Added We'll notify you here with news about Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Off On Stream on South Korea's Kospi share index falls 8%, other Asian shares are also mostly lower South Korea’s Kospi share index has dropped 8% on prolonged selling of chipmaking shares
TOKYO -- South Korea’s Kospi stock index dropped more than 8% on Wednesday as doubts over massive investments in artificial intelligence once again led investors to dump shares.
The latest rout was led by a plunge in shares in chipmaker SK Hynix after its operating profit in the last quarter fell short of analysts’ forecasts even though it soared sixfold to a record 60.5 trillion won ($41.2 billion).
SK Hynix sank 12.6% while shares in Samsung Electronics dropped 8%.
Other Asian markets also mostly declined.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 1.8% to 61,038.63, giving up early gains.
Japanese stocks were mixed in their reaction to a major earthquake that rattled the southern Kyushu region a day earlier. A previous earthquake in the region caused severe damage and disruptions for automakers and other manufacturers.
The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.5% to 3,793.11.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng countered the regional trend, gaining 1.7% to 25,738.42 and in Australia the S & P/ASX 200 added 1% to 9,036.90.
Oil prices that had eased from the two-month high that they hit last week rebounded.
Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 4.2% to $87.58 a barrel.
Benchmark U.S. crude also gained 4.2%, to $82.58.
On Tuesday, shares were mixed on Wall Street.
The S & P 500 added 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1%.
The majority of U.S. stocks rose after more companies delivered stronger profits for the spring than analysts expected. Coca-Cola climbed 5% after its revenue rose 7%.
Expectations for stellar earnings reports are weighing particularly heavily on stocks of chipmakers and other companies that have been huge winners from the boom in artificial-intelligence technology.
Micron Technology’s stock came into the day having more than tripled for the year following gangbuster growth, but its shares sank 8.9%.
Others also helping to keep the market in check were Advanced Micro Devices, down 8.1%, and Applied Materials, down 7.8%.
In currency trading in Asia, the U.S. dollar slipped 163.57 Japanese yen from 163.81 yen. The euro cost $1.1399, up from $1.1391.
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.