It was another dizzying day for Asian tech stocks.
A day after falling 10 percent, South Korea’s KOSPI benchmark index recovered on Wednesday in a volatile trading session. The index rose as much as 4 percent in morning trading before a sharp sell-off briefly sent it down 2 percent. By late afternoon, it had clawed its way back to a gain of nearly 3 percent.
South Korea’s stock market, the world’s best performer since early last year, triggered a global sell-off in technology stocks as the KOSPI plummeted on Tuesday. The drop reflected growing investor concern about whether the rally fueled by enthusiasm for artificial intelligence had gone too far, too fast.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.2 percent, pointing to a modest gain when stocks resume U.S. trading on Wednesday.
In Asia, no market is more exposed to the AI boom than South Korea and Taiwan, where a trio of semiconductor companies wield enormous influence over broader stock indices.
In South Korea, the rally was led by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the country’s two chip giants. Samsung jumped 8 percent, while SK Hynix gained 1 percent.
Taiwan moved in the opposite direction. The benchmark index fell more than 2 percent as shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, fell 4 percent.
