An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Friday. (Yonhap)
South Korean stocks opened lower Friday following overnight losses on Wall Street amid concerns that major firms’ investments in the artificial intelligence sector could lead to financial burdens.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index sank 246.42 points, or 4.77 percent, to 4,917.15 in the first 15 minutes of trading, surrendering the 5,000 threshold.
Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dipped 1.59 percent and the S&P 500 lost 1.3 percent as investors expressed concerns over excessive AI-related spending by major technology firms. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.2 percent.
In Seoul, large cap shares opened lower across different sectors.
Samsung Electronics fell 4.58 percent, and SK hynix sank 5.58 percent.
Hyundai Motor lost 6.86 percent, and its sister Kia decreased 4.26 percent. Hanwha Aerospace crashed 7.99 percent.
Chemical shares opened mostly lower as well. LG Chem dipped 4.33 percent, and SK Innovation lost 4.01 percent. S-Oil also moved down 5.11 percent.
Financial shares were also in negative terrain, with Shinhan Financial moving down 1.1 percent, and Samsung Life Insurance losing 4.96 percent.
The Korean won was trading at 1,474.3 won against the US dollar as of 9:15 a.m., down 5.3 won from the previous session’s close. (Yonhap)