By Megan Cheah and Kimberley Kao
Asia-Pacific equities were mixed, with chip stocks leading declines as concerns about the longevity of artificial-intelligence enthusiasm weighed on market sentiment.
The highly volatile South Korean equities market, home to chip makers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, erased much of its Wednesday gains and slipped into a bear market, which refers to a decline of at least 20% from a recent high.
The sharp drop prompted Korea Exchange to briefly suspend trading in the benchmark Kospi's constituent stocks early Thursday.
The index was recently 5.9% lower, while SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which collectively account for around half of the capitalization-weighted index, declined 12% and 8.5%, respectively.
