World shares mostly decline with South Korea's Kospi down 6.4%, while oil prices slip

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HONG KONG — World shares mostly declined Thursday and oil prices slipped despite a flurry of strikes between the U.S. and Iran.

U.S. futures edged lower, while selling of AI-related shares weighed on benchmarks in South Korea and Japan.

In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4 per cent to 10,475.27. France’s CAC 40 also fell 0.4 per cent, to 8,348.82. Germany’s DAX shed 0.3 per cent to 24,926.60.

In South Korea, Seoul’s Kospi index sank 6.4 per cent to 6,820.60. An interest rate hike by the Bank of Korea also contributed its tumble. It was the first rate hike by the BOK since 2023 and was aimed at helping curb inflationary pressures due to the Iran war.

Memory chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 11.5 per cent, while Samsung Electronics fell 8.8 per cent.

• S&P 500 market updates here

Taiwan’s Taiex ended nearly unchanged. Taiwan computer chipmaker TSMC gained 1.2 per cent ahead of its earnings report. After the market closed, TSMC, often seen as a barometer for the global industry and for the boom in artificial intelligence, announced an additional $100 billion in investments in U.S. computer chipmaking capacity, along with record earnings in the last quarter and higher revenue growth forecasts.

In Amsterdam, Dutch chip machine maker ASML’s shares rose 0.9 per cent early Thursday following TSMC’s stronger-than-expected results.

In other Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.8 per cent to 66,835.54. Shares of Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia skidded 15 per cent. Chipmaking equipment company Tokyo Electron dropped 4.5 per cent, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest gave up 5.9 per cent.

SoftBank Group shed 6.3 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was a regional outlier, gaining 1.3 per cent to 25,008.60. Technology giant Alibaba’s Hong Kong-traded shares climbed 3.1 per cent, after China’s cyberspace regulator said Wednesday it had approved the Apple Intelligence AI tool for use in China. An Alibaba spokesperson said its Qwen model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence.

The Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.9 per cent to 3,882.41.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 closed flat at 8,840.70, while India’s Sensex picked up 0.2 per cent.

Oil prices meandered, remaining at elevated levels as the U.S. intensified its strikes against Iran, while Iran targeted missile and drone fire on Kuwait and Bahrain.

Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 0.3 per cent to $84.68 a barrel. It was trading near $72 per barrel in late February before the war began.

Benchmark U.S. crude slipped less than 0.1 per cent to $79.57 per barrel.

On Wednesday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent and the Dow climbed 0.3 per cent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite added 0.6 per cent.

A U.S. report showing inflation slowed in June and strong earnings results from American investment company BlackRock among other major firms also helped push the market higher. BlackRock’s shares rose 6.6 per cent after it reported stronger-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit.

In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar fell to 162.14 Japanese yen from 162.19 yen. The euro rose to $1.1467 from $1.1464.

Chan Ho-him, The Associated Press