Asian stock markets plunged on Friday as the sell-off in artificial intelligence and chip stocks that hammered Wall Street spread across the region, with South Korea's benchmark triggering a trading halt and Japan's Nikkei sliding into a bear market.

South Korea's KOSPI fell 8.52% in the first three minutes of trading, dropping to 4,924.61 and below the 5,000 mark for the first time since 6 February, Yonhap reported. The Korea Exchange triggered a stage-1 circuit breaker at 9:03 a.m. local time (00:03 GMT), halting all stock and derivatives trading for 20 minutes — the 11th such halt this year and the 17th in its history.

Chip stocks lead the recovery

By 11:07 a.m. in Seoul (02:07 GMT), the index had recovered to 5,088.76, down 5.48%, having touched an intraday low of 4,911.28. Samsung Electronics, down almost 10% at the halt, had narrowed its loss to 5.06%, while SK Hynix was down 7.59% after falling nearly 12%. Foreign investors have made net sales of more than 30 trillion won over the past month, including 391.1 billion won on Friday morning, the Korea Exchange said.

Rout spreads across Asia

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was down about 6%, CNN reported, still in a technical bear market after falling 20% from its June peak. Taiwan's Taiex fell about 8%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1.6%, and mainland China's CSI300 and Shanghai Composite were both down 1.5%.

The selling followed Wall Street's worst day in more than a year, when the Nasdaq fell 5.52% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 12.25% on fears that the Democrats' midterm sweep could bring tighter regulation of the AI data-centre buildout. Some analysts in Seoul said the sell-off looked overdone. Market moves are not investment advice; all figures here are intraday levels, not closing prices.

Sources: Reuters, South Korea stocks plunge 8%, circuit breaker triggered as chip shares tumble, 6 November 2026; Yonhap via AIStockWire, KOSPI circuit breaker, 11th stop this year, 6 November 2026; CNN, Asian markets fall as US rout spreads, 6 November 2026.