South Korea's KOSPI fall nearly 8% on chip selloff

Round-up of South Korean financial markets:** South Korean shares fell nearly 8% on Thursday and posted their lowest close in more than three weeks, dragged down by a global selloff in chipmakers as Meta Platforms' plan to sell computing power raised questions over excess AI capacity. The won weake…

Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean shares fell nearly 8% on Thursday and posted their lowest close in more than three weeks, dragged down by a global selloff in chipmakers as Meta Platforms' plan to sell computing power raised questions over excess AI capacity. The won weakened, while the benchmark bond yield rose.

** The benchmark KOSPI KRX:KOSPI closed down 655.32 points, or 7.89%, at 7,648.09, the lowest closing since June 8.

** Among index heavyweights, chipmaker Samsung Electronics KRX:005930 fell 9.06%, while peer SK Hynix KRX:000660 lost 14.57%. Battery maker LG Energy Solution KRX:373220 climbed 1.72%.

** Hyundai Motor KRX:005380 and sister automaker Kia Corp KRX:000270 were down 1.13% and up 2.61%, respectively. Steelmaker POSCO Holdings KRX:005490 added 0.79%, while drugmaker Samsung BioLogics KRX:207940 rose 0.72%.

** Meta Platforms NASDAQ:META is building a cloud business to sell excess AI computing capacity.

** Of the total 916 traded issues, 280 shares advanced, while 616 declined.

** Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 4,370.6 billion won.

** The won was quoted at 1,555.8 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform FX_IDC:USDKRW, 0.30% lower than its previous close at 1,551.2.

** In offshore trading, the won FX_IDC:USDKRW was quoted at 1,554.0 per dollar, down 0.2% on the day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract (KRW1MNDFOR=) was quoted at 1,553.6.

** The KOSPI has risen 81.49% so far this year.

** The won has weakened 7.5% against the dollar this year.

** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds (KTBc1) gained 0.15 point to 103.08.

** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield (KR3YT=RR) fell by 4.4 basis points to 3.743%, while the benchmark 10-year yield TVC:KR10 rose by 2.5 basis points to 4.182%.