Taiex Takes Record Point Drop, Korea Halts KOSPI in AI Rout

Taiwan's benchmark Taiex sank as much as 3,737.67 points intraday on Friday, its largest-ever point drop, before closing 4.51% lower at 39,701.64, Nikkei Asia reported. The index had opened 2,658.96 points lower at 38,915.76.

In Seoul, the KOSPI plunged 8.52% to 4,924.61 within minutes of the open, triggering a Level 1 circuit breaker at 9:03 a.m. that suspended all trading for twenty minutes. Under Korea Exchange rules, the halt activates when the benchmark stays more than 8% below the prior close for a continuous minute. The KOSPI closed down 6.02%.

The chip names took the hardest hits. SK Hynix fell more than 11.5% and Samsung Electronics was down nearly 10% in Seoul; in Taipei, TSMC dropped 9.6% intraday.

The trigger was Wall Street's overnight sell-off, itself tied to Democratic gains in this week's US midterm elections and investor concern that incoming lawmakers could slow the country's data-center build-out. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average and Taiwan's Taiex Index "were on course to enter technical bear markets" by the close. Nikkei Asia's framing was blunt: "Worries over data center curbs accelerate skid in Asian markets."

This is the second AI-chip rout alert on our tracker in two days; on Wednesday the Nasdaq 100 had erased a record $2.3 trillion in a single session.