A brutal selloff in semiconductor shares has erased more than $1 trillion in market value from the world's leading chipmakers this week, triggering the sharpest declines in Asian equity markets in months.
South Korea's Kospi index tumbled more than 10 percent at its worst before stabilizing, while the Nikkei in Tokyo fell over four percent and Taiwan's main index dropped more than four percent. The rout was intensified by weaker-than-expected earnings from SK Hynix, which accelerated selling across the technology sector. Nvidia lost $238 billion in value, SK Hynix shed $176 billion, and Samsung Electronics dropped $173 billion from Friday's close. US chip stocks including Intel and AMD also fell more than four percent.
Amid the carnage, Apple briefly surpassed the $5 trillion valuation mark, while in China, CXMT surged 466 percent on its Shanghai debut and Shanghai Yuliangsheng began mass production of DUV lithography machines.