Asian equities extended declines on Wednesday as a sharp selloff in chip stocks deepened, with South Korea’s benchmark index tumbling 5.5% to 6,495.1 points. The KOSPI’s drop, the steepest in months, triggered a temporary trading halt under the exchange’s sidecar program.
The rout was led by semiconductor shares, with SK Hynix falling 8.4% and Samsung Electronics down 7.3%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 2.4%, while the broader TOPIX dropped 2.7%. Kioxia led losses among Japanese tech firms with an 8.9% fall, followed by TDK’s 4.1% drop. Sony slipped 1.02%.
China’s CSI 300 fell 2.4%, while the Shanghai Composite lost 2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was roughly flat. Baidu plunged 12.5% after missing revenue estimates, though Xiaomi rose 6.4% despite a sharp drop in adjusted profit, citing a 15.9% increase in electric-vehicle revenue. Unitree Robotics surged nearly sixfold in its Shanghai debut following an IPO oversubscribed by more than 8,000 times by retail investors.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.3%, Singapore’s Straits Times index declined 0.36%, and India’s Nifty 50 opened 0.3% lower. Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite slipped 0.6%, while Bank Indonesia held its benchmark rate steady at 5.75%.
U.S. equity futures showed modest declines, with Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.2% and S&P 500 futures down 0.1%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index sank 5.6% overnight, its largest one-day drop since late July. Micron Technology fell 7% and Nvidia declined 2.3%.
Long-dated U.S. Treasury yields climbed, with the 30-year yield reaching 5.3371%, the highest since 2007, while the 10-year yield hovered around 4.69%. A $16 billion sale of 20-year Treasury debt is scheduled later in the session. Brent crude futures remained above $90 per barrel amid persistent geopolitical risks in the Middle East.
