Seoul, Feb 28 South Korean stocks tumbled over 3 per cent on Friday, dragged down by a possible tariff war threat by US President Donald Trump and a slump in artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia. The local currency fell sharply to a three-week low against the US dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 88.97 points, or 3.39 per cent, to close at 2,532.78, following a 0.73 percent drop on the previous day, reports Yonhap news agency.
It is the lowest closing since Feb. 10, when the KOSPI finished at 2,521.27.
Trade volume was heavy at 573.3 million shares worth 15 trillion won ($10.3 billion), with decliners far outnumbering gainers 832 to 94.
Foreign and institutional selling drove the plunge, dumping a net 1.5 trillion won and 615.9 billion won, respectively. Individuals, however, scooped up a net 2 trillion won.
Overnight in the United States, Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, rekindling fears over a possible tariff war across the world.
On Wall Street, shares of Nvidia tumbled 8.5 per cent as its better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings failed to revive investor sentiment on AI, which has been cooled by China's DeepSeek.
In Seoul, semiconductor and information technology (IT) shares were among the biggest losers.
Chip giant Samsung Electronics sank 3.2 per cent to 54,500 won, and SK hynix, a key supplier to Nvidia, slumped 4.52 per cent to 190,200 won.
Top online platform company Naver tumbled 5.48 per cent to 207,000 won and its rival Kakao declined 2.92 per cent to 43,150 won.
Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution lost 4.99 per cent to 352,000 won, and instant noodle maker Samyang Food slid 2.71 per cent to 860,000 won.
Samsung Biologics, a bio tech unit under Samsung Group, skidded 3.71 percent to 1.11 million won, and content production studio CJ ENM fell 2.1 percent to 60,700 won.
The local currency was quoted at 1,463.4 won against the greenback at 3:30 p.m., down 20.4 won from the previous session.
It marked the highest won-dollar rate quoted at 3:30 p.m. since Feb. 7, when it hit 1,467.2 won against the U.S. dollar.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, ended higher. The yield on three-year Treasurys fell 2.6 basis points to 2.566 per cent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds lost 3.4 basis points to 2.646 per cent.
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