South Korea markets led declines in Asia-Pacific Thursday, tracking Wall Street losses as the tech selloff gained momentum.
Seoul’s Kospi index tumbled 3.86% to 5,163.57, leading losses in Asia, as chip heavyweights Samsung dipped 5.8% and SK Hynix fell 6.44%.
Other top losers included defense giant Hanwha Aerospace, which declined 7.33%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dumped 475.32 points, or 0.9%, to 53,818.04.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index gained 37.92 points, or 0.1%, to 26,885.24, dragged by basic materials stocks.
In Japan, Investment firm SoftBank Group Corp declined over 7% after chip designer Arm’s fiscal third-quarter licensing sales missed estimates.
However, Japanese electronics manufacturer Panasonic jumped 8.41%, even as the company reported worse revenue and net profit numbers for its fiscal third quarter ended December.
Adjusted operating profit, however, increased to 159.1 billion yen ($1.03 billion U.S.), a 5.59% gain from the same period a year before. The adjusted operating profit strips out restructuring costs of 129.3 billion yen.
In other markets
The CSI 300 in Shanghai lost 28.26 points, or 0.6%, to 4,670.42.
In Taiwan, the Taiex plummeted 488.54 points, or 1.5%, to 31,801.27
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index strengthened 10.37 points, or 0.2%. to 4,975.87.
In Australia, the ASX dipped 38.61 points, or 0.4%, to 8,889.22.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 slipped 23.27 points, or 0.2%, to 13,444.02.
