SEOUL, November 21 (AJP) - Asian markets slid on Friday as a fresh selloff in U.S. tech reignited “AI bubble” fears and laid bare how deeply regional sentiment is tethered to Wall Street’s semiconductor cycle.
Overnight, all three major U.S. indexes fell. Nvidia cooled 3.15 percent to $180.64, reversing its brief rebound. AMD plunged 7.84 percent to $206.02, while Micron Technology tumbled 10.87 percent to $201.37, clinging just above the psychologically important $200 line.
South Korea’s KOSPI skidded 3.4 percent to 3,866 as of 10:30 a.m., slipping back below 3,900 after a brief recovery above 4,000 level on the previous day.
Foreign investors dumped 1.58 trillion won ($1.1 billion) of Korean equities — the steepest net selling among major Asian markets — as concerns mounted over an AI-driven correction, a rapidly weakening won, and the index’s heavy concentration in a handful of mega-cap tech names.
Retail investors scooped up 1.37 trillion won in dip-buying, while institutions added 243 billion won.
SK hynix plunged 7.71 percent to 527,000 won, posting the sharpest loss on the main board. Samsung Electronics fell 4.57 percent to 96,000 won.
The AI selloff spilled over into Korea’s power-equipment and nuclear-related names: Doosan Enerbility slid 5.7 percent to 73,300 won, and Hyosung Heavy Industries extended losses to 1,915,000 won.
Still, pockets of resilience emerged. Lotte Energy Materials — which supplies copper foil used in Nvidia GPU substrates — gained 3.6 percent to 40,400 won. Naver rose 1.6 percent to 261,000 won on reports that it is making progress toward a merger with Dunamu, operator of Korea's largest virtual-asset exchange.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.8 percent to 48,928, a softer decline than Seoul’s but still burdened by the tech rout.
Nvidia-linked suppliers were slammed: Advantest sank 10.3 percent to 18,695 yen, while Ibiden slid 8.3 percent to 11,495 yen.
Some stocks, however, provided upside. Olympus jumped 5.24 percent to 2,098 yen after strong second-quarter results and a deeper push into medical devices. M3 added 7 percent to 2,637 yen. Mitsubishi Estate climbed 4.3 percent to 3,496 yen despite renewed chatter about yen carry-trade unwinding as the Bank of Japan inches closer to rate hikes.
Taiwan’s TAIEX slid 2.9 percent to 26,638. TSMC dropped 3.44 percent to 1,405 Taiwan dollars, and MediaTek lost 3.4 percent to 1,145 Taiwan dollars.
Chinese markets also softened. The Shanghai Composite dipped 1.1 percent to 3,887, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.58 percent to 25,428, tracking the broader tech downturn across the region.
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