# Asian Stocks Slide Amid AI Financing Concerns, With Losses Varying by Market

By Enna Lee

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/34016
Published: 2026-10-17T13:02:39.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-17T13:02:39.000Z
Section: Investing

> South Korea’s KOSPI fell 7.57% on Oct. 15, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.03%. South Korea’s two main indexes halted trading after sequential circuit breakers.

Asian stock markets slid on Oct. 15 as concern over the cost and financing of artificial intelligence investment coincided with sharp differences in losses across regional benchmarks.

South Korea recorded the steepest decline among the markets covered. The KOSPI fell 7.57%, while the KOSDAQ also dropped sharply. The two indexes triggered first-level circuit breakers sequentially, pausing trading for 20 minutes.

Samsung Electronics lost 9.48% and SK Hynix fell 11.06%. Foreign investors sold about 2.9 trillion won in KOSPI shares. The two companies’ combined share repurchase programs, valued at about 55 trillion won, were nearing completion.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 4.90% to 64,425.95. Investors focused on weakness in CoreWeave bonds as they weighed AI investment costs and balance-sheet pressure. Semiconductor equipment shares and SoftBank Group were among the stocks hit.

The Taiwan Weighted Index lost 1,655.96 points to close at 46,969.87. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. shares fell 2.01%, accounting for nearly 396 points of the index’s decline.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.03% to 24,062.72. AI hardware accounts for an estimated 15% to 20% of the Hang Seng Tech Index. Southbound investors recorded net sales of 5.08 billion Hong Kong dollars. Net buying included Tencent and CNOOC, while Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable and Hua Hong Grace Semiconductor were among the shares sold. SMIC saw a 13th consecutive session of net selling.

On mainland China, the Shanghai Composite declined 1.59% to 3,707.48, and 5,108 stocks fell. Liquor and brokerage shares rose as technology hardware names came under pressure.

The pattern offers one possible explanation for the varying losses: heavy semiconductor exposure in South Korea and Taiwan may have left those markets more exposed, while Hong Kong’s smaller AI hardware weighting coincided with a milder decline. Differences in index composition and trading flows are an analytical interpretation of the moves; the daily figures do not establish causation. Foreign flows in South Korea, CoreWeave bond performance and Hong Kong’s reported buying and selling patterns are among the indicators to watch.