Seoul:South Korean stocks experienced a notable decline late Friday morning as investors moved to offload major chip shares. This trend followed overnight losses in U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor stocks, which negatively impacted the market sentiment.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) opened 2.36 percent lower and further decreased by 135.29 points, or 2.44 percent, to 5,398.48 as of 1120 a.m. The U.S. stock market closed mixed overnight, with significant losses in major technology shares affecting the broader market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a marginal increase of 0.02 percent, while the S&P 500 fell by 1.21 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped by 2.6 percent. Specific companies like Micron Technology, Nvidia, and Intel reported declines of 6.26 percent, 4.4 percent, and 8.04 percent, respectively.

In Seoul, large-cap shares also traded lower. Notably, semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix saw their shares drop by 3.03 percent and 0.25 percent, respectively. SK hynix managed to pare some earlier losses after it announced the suspension of plans to list its U.S. subsidiary, Solidigm. Meanwhile, AI investment firm SK Square edged down by 0.4 percent following the news.

Solidigm is part of a complex corporate structure, with SK Square as the parent of SK hynix, which owns Solidigm. This structure has sparked concerns regarding the potential for a holding company discount, where a parent company's stock might trade below the value of its underlying assets. Additionally, the Korean won was trading at 1,324 won against the U.S. dollar as of 1120 a.m., an increase of 2.5 won from the previous trading session.