ASIA MARKET OPEN | Chip Stocks Drag Tokyo and Seoul Lower at Open as AI Warning, Oil Spike Weigh; KOSPI Sheds Over 3%

According to Kabutan, Yonhap and HKET, Asian equities opened broadly lower on Monday as a warning on AI-development pace from Anthropic's chief executive and a fresh climb in oil prices hit technology and chip shares across the region, with markets also cautious ahead of this week's central-bank meetings. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 opened down 351.81 points, or 0.55%, at 63,659.53, extending its decline as chip-related names Kioxia, Tokyo Electron and Advantest fell. The index slid further after the open, quoted at 62,953.57, down 1,057.77 points or 1.65%, as of 09:40 UTC+8 on Google Finance. Seoul's KOSPI opened sharply lower, down 217.30 points at 6,692.61, pressured by heavy selling in chipmakers; it stood at 6,666.80, off 3.52%, as of 09:40 UTC+8, with Samsung Electronics down 3.76% and SK Hynix down 6.13%. Hong Kong stocks opened weaker, with the Hang Seng Index down 104.45 points, or 0.42%, at 24,701.18 and the Hang Seng Tech Index off 0.7% at 4,290. Alibaba fell nearly 2%, Z.AI slid more than 5% after unveiling a HK$39.27 billion (about $5 billion) share placement and convertible-bond sale, and the CSOP SK Hynix Daily Max (2x) Leveraged Product dropped more than 13%. Taiwan's TAIEX opened low and fell as much as about 690 points, breaking below the 46,000 level, with TSMC down NT$25 at NT$2,385; the index was quoted at 45,428.29, down 756.56 points or 1.64%, as of 09:40 UTC+8. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite eased 11.37 points, or 0.29%, to 3,876.74 as of 09:40 UTC+8.