Foreign selling drags Kospi down 5%, sends won to 17-year low

Heavy foreign selling rattled South Korean markets on Friday, dragging the benchmark Kospi down more than 5 percent and driving the won to a 17-year low against the greenback.

The Kospi closed down 5.54 percent at 8,160.59 on the day.

The benchmark index opened sharply lower, tracking an overnight decline in US semiconductor stocks after Broadcom projected third-quarter AI-related revenue of $16 billion, falling short of market expectations.

It fell as much as 6 percent in early trading to 8,038 ...