South Korea’s Kospi snaps 4-session winning streak as Asia-Pacific markets decline
Pedestrians are reflected in a window as electronic boards display stock information at the Australian Securities Exchange, operated by ASX Ltd. on Aug. 6, 2024 in Sydney, Australia.
Lisa Maree Williams | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets fell Tuesday in the absence of any major triggers, after two key Wall Street indexes rose overnight on tech optimism.
Amazon shares rose 4% on a $38 billion deal with OpenAI, a move that will use hundreds of thousands of Nvidia’s graphics processing units. Nvidia also gained about 2% after it secured export licenses to ship its chips to the United Arab Emirates.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.91% to 8,813.7 after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept its cash rate unchanged at 3.6%, citing concerns about higher inflation.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.74% to close at 51,497.2, and the Topix declined 0.65% to 3,310.14. South Korea’s Kospi fell 2.37% to 4,121.74, while the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 1.31% to 926.57.
The Kospi has gained in 12 of the past 15 sessions, hitting multiple fresh highs this month on the back of global AI tailwinds as well as local structural changes that are steadily eroding the long-standing “Korea discount.”
On Tuesday, South Korea also announced that it would triple AI spending in 2026, with President Lee Jae Myung reportedly saying that 10.1 trillion won ($7 billion) was earmarked for AI transformation, according to South Korean media outlet Yonhap.
The budget, which is triple the 3.3 trillion won allocated for AI this year, will help South Korea become one of the world’s top three AI powers, Lee said.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.79% to 25,952.4 while mainland’s CSI 300 declined 0.75% to 4,618.70.
Overnight in the U.S., the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.46%, while the S&P 500 traded up 0.17%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, falling 0.48%.
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.