BENGALURU: South Korean and Taiwan equities led Asian stock markets lower on Thursday, as concerns over artificial intelligence-related investments and profits drove investors away from tech stocks.
An MSCI index of emerging Asian equities, in which South Korea and Taiwan make up 40 percent of the index, declined 0.3 percent to hover near a three-week low hit on Tuesday.
Stocks in South Korea closed 1.5 percent lower as concerns over frothy AI valuations weighed. Chipmaker Samsung Electronics fell 0.3 percent, while battery maker LG Energy Solution tumbled 8.9 percent.
The South Korean won, which has been hovering around 16-year lows, weakened 0.3 percent, prompting officials to ratchet up warnings against speculative moves.
Equities in Taiwan fell as much as 0.6 percent before closing 0.2 percent lower, ahead of a central bank decision at 0800 GMT.
Economists surveyed by Reuters expect the central bank to maintain its policy stance citing the strong performance of the economy, which is booming on AI demand.
In Southeast Asia, equities in the Philippines declined 0.8 percent, while those in Singapore retreated 0.2 percent.
“Although emerging market equities are, in some places, very heavily exposed to the AI boom, we think they would in aggregate hold up better than those in the US if that boom continued to unwind,” Thomas Mathews, head of markets, Asia Pacific at Capital Economics, said in a note.
However, he said if concerns about AI became a panic, Asian equities would probably still be hit hard, even where AI exposure was not high.
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