Seoul, June 8 -- Korea's benchmark stock index, KOSPI, was down more than 8 per cent as the blistering AI rally fizzled and investors grew cautious amid a strong US jobs report and a renewed conflict in West Asia.

The benchmark index fell as much as 9 per cent intraday with heavyweights like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix tanking 10.2 per cent and 7.7 per cent respectively. The selloff in tech shares continued after Broadcom last week disappointed with its guidance for the entire year.

The AI chip stocks had touched record highs as investors became confident of the success of the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence even as AI companies announced massive capital expenditure to ramp up their compute capacity.

Samsung and SK ...