Seoul stocks open lower on Wall Street losses, AI concerns

Korean stocks faced a downward trend on Friday, mirroring losses observed in Wall Street overnight, as fresh doubts about the long-term viability of the artificial intelligence (AI) sector cast a shadow over investor confidence. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) started 2.99 percent lower, subsequently declined by 3.85 percent, closing at 5,709.23 points by 9:15 a.m. This marked a reversal from the previous day's 1.24 percent decline driven by profit-taking in major chip stocks, despite Samsung Electronics reporting record quarterly earnings.

The decline on Friday was attributed to the negative performance on Wall Street, primarily driven by a sharp drop in technology shares. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, suffered a significant 12 percent plunge following its third-quarter revenue, which increased by 25 percent year-on-year to $127.58 billion, but fell short of market projections.

This prompted concerns over the profitability of extensive investments in AI technology. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index also suffered a 1.38 percent drop, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index declined by 1.4 percent, further dampening investor sentiment towards Korean semiconductor companies. Notably, top market cap companies such as Samsung Electronics and chip giant SK declined by 3.66 percent and an unspecified percentage, respectively.