Japan and South Korea Stocks Crash at Open: Kospi Plunges Nearly 3%, Nikkei Tumbles 1,500 Points as Samsung, SK Hynix, SoftBank Dive

TradingKey - Japanese and South Korean stock markets crash at the open! Nikkei plummets over 1,500 points, South Korean stocks tumble 2.84%, while Samsung, SK Hynix, and SoftBank slump across the board.

During Asian trading hours on September 2, major stock indexes in Japan and South Korea both gapped down in morning trading. Among them, South Korea's KOSPI Index opened sharply lower by 2.84%, hovering at 6,641.94 points. Core tech chip stocks opened lower and weakened, with Samsung Electronics dropping 3.26%, breaching the 260,000-won mark to trade at 252,500 won; SK Hynix fell 3.66% to 1,631,000 won.

KOSPI Index chart, Source: TradingView

Driven by overnight volatility in overseas external markets and lower index futures at the open, the Nikkei 225 Index plunged over 1,500 points right at the open, down 2.33% to stand at 64,674.15 points. Semiconductor stocks were generally under pressure in morning trading, with Kioxia falling 2.08%, losing the 50,000-yen level to trade at 49,940 yen; SoftBank shares dropped 4.5% to 5,025 yen.

The collective gap-down crash in Japanese and South Korean stock markets in morning trading was mainly driven by two factors: a heavy sell-off in chip stocks and rising risk aversion. Overnight, U.S. tech stocks, particularly the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and AI chip leaders like Nvidia, experienced sharp pullbacks, directly impacting Japanese and South Korean markets that are highly sensitive to the global tech supply chain.

In addition, the latest U.S. manufacturing data, such as the ISM Manufacturing Index, came in below expectations and fell into contraction territory. Coupled with extreme market sensitivity to the upcoming U.S. non-farm payrolls (NFP) report to be released this Friday (September 4), this triggered investor concerns about a hard landing for U.S. stocks and the global economy.