Asian Stocks Plunge Amid AI Boom Fears as Oil Prices Surge

Asian shares were mostly trading lower on Thursday, led by South Korea's Kospi which extended its losses after falling over 16% in the past two days. The decline was largely due to investors dumping shares of companies linked to artificial intelligence (AI) stocks.

The benchmark Kospi index closed 1.2% lower at 5,593.56, following a 10.8% drop on Tuesday and nearly 6% fall on Wednesday. This marks the index's more than 38% decline from its all-time high of over 9,100 in June.

Chipmaker SK Hynix lost 5.6% after sinking over 9% on Wednesday despite reporting a record quarterly operating profit that ballooned nearly sixfold. Samsung Electronics also fell 0.7%, despite announcing a record operating profit for the latest quarter.