South Korea’s benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) ended higher Friday after recovering from an early decline, a reversal that left the index up 0.30% despite pressure on U.S. technology shares.
Korea Exchange data showed the KOSPI closed at 5,550.30, up 16.53 points, after opening 2.36% lower. At 9:38 p.m. ET Thursday (01:38 UTC Friday), Reuters reported the index was down 2.14% in an early market snapshot.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.6% Thursday, Yonhap reported. Reuters attributed early pressure in Seoul to investor concerns about AI spending that earnings from Tesla and Meta had not eased, with recovering oil prices adding uncertainty.
Meta reported $34.91 billion in third-quarter capital expenditures, including finance-lease principal payments, and forecast 2026 spending of $135 billion to $145 billion. Its filing linked part of the expense increase to infrastructure expansion, third-party cloud services and third-party AI token costs.
Korea Exchange data showed Samsung Electronics gained 0.47% to 215,500 won and SK hynix climbed 4.42% to 1.28 million won. The tech-heavy KOSDAQ fell 1.62% to 751.69. Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, told Yonhap, “Concerns over AI investments stemming from the United States had already been priced in.”
Separately, SK hynix said in an Oct. 23 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it had stopped reviewing pre-IPO fundraising and a possible IPO for Solidigm, its U.S. subsidiary, citing capital-market conditions. The company had considered the fundraising to help finance a U.S. fab and meet AI-memory demand.
Yonhap’s closing tally showed 716 decliners and 173 gainers. Foreign investors ended the session with net sales of 98.3 billion won; institutions and individuals were net buyers of 86.8 billion won and 4.5 billion won, respectively. At 2:30 a.m. ET Friday (06:30 UTC), the won was quoted at 1,324.6 per dollar, 0.4 won weaker than at the previous stock-session close, Yonhap reported.
