World shares mostly fell on Thursday as selling of AI-related shares weighed on benchmarks, with South Korea's Kospi sinking 6.4% after the Bank of Korea's first rate hike since 2023. Oil slipped despite a flurry of strikes between the U.S. and Iran, and European benchmarks opened lower.
South Korea's Kospi index sank 6.4% to 6,820.60, leading a broad retreat across global equities as selling of AI-related shares weighed on benchmarks in Seoul and Tokyo. A rate move at home also contributed to the fall.
A rate hike compounds Seoul's slide
The Bank of Korea's first rate hike since 2023 added to the Kospi's tumble, a step aimed at helping curb inflationary pressures tied to the Iran war. Memory chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 11.5%, while Samsung Electronics fell 8.8%.
The chip selling spread across Asia. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 2.8% to 66,835.54, and shares of Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia skidded 15%. Tokyo Electron dropped 4.5% and chip testing equipment maker Advantest gave up 5.9%, while SoftBank Group shed 6.3%.
Hong Kong bucks the trend
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was a regional outlier, gaining 1.3% to 25,008.60. Alibaba's Hong Kong-traded shares climbed 3.1% after China's cyberspace regulator approved the Apple Intelligence AI tool for use in China, with the company saying its Qwen model will be integrated into the tool. Taiwan's Taiex ended nearly unchanged, while TSMC gained 1.2% ahead of its earnings report.
European markets opened weaker. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.4% to 10,475.27. France's CAC 40 also fell 0.4% to 8,348.82. Germany's DAX shed 0.3% to 24,926.60.
Oil holds near elevated levels
Oil prices meandered as the U.S. intensified strikes against Iran and Iran targeted missile and drone fire on Kuwait and Bahrain. Brent crude dropped 0.3% to $84.68 a barrel, after trading near $72 per barrel in late February before the war began. Benchmark U.S. crude slipped less than 0.1% to $79.57 per barrel.
Wall Street had closed higher a day earlier. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Dow climbed 0.3%, helped by a report showing U.S. inflation slowed in June. BlackRock's shares rose 6.6% after stronger-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit.
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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