An overnight rout in US chip stocks and renewed Middle East tensions pressured Asian markets, sending South Korea’s KOSPI down as much as 6.1% on Friday. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell more than 7%; the Korea Exchange temporarily halted program trading. The safeguard has been triggered increasingly in recent weeks in South Korea’s $4.1 tln equity market. The sell-off intensified as investors cut risk ahead of the weekend after oil rose toward $100 a barrel. After four days of net buying,

An overnight rout in US chip stocks and renewed Middle East tensions pressured Asian markets, sending South Korea’s KOSPI down as much as 6.1% on Friday. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell more than 7%; the Korea Exchange temporarily halted program trading. The safeguard has been triggered increasingly in recent weeks in South Korea’s $4.1 tln equity market. The sell-off intensified as investors cut risk ahead of the weekend after oil rose toward $100 a barrel. After four days of net buying, global investors resumed selling Korean stocks, trimming technology positions. NH Investment & Securities Korea cash equities head Shawn Oh said local funds reduced tech holdings and lowered risk ahead of the weekend amid ongoing Middle East tensions. Samsung Securities sales trader Roy Lim said some Asian hedge funds were selling Samsung and SK Hynix to build positions in China’s ChangXin Technology ahead of its July 27 listing.