Published July 17, 2026 Updated about 2 hours ago By Reuters BENGALURU: Chip-heavy South Korean equities weighed on Asian stocks on Thursday as investors embarked upon a selling spree, while stocks in Singapore snapped a 10-session winning streak. The MSCI EM Asia equities index slumped 1.4 percent, dragged lower by stocks in South Korea. South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI ended 6.4 percent lower to erase the previous session’s gains. The declines also triggered a “sidecar” trading curb on the KOSPI and the junior Kosdaq indexes, temporarily halting program trading. Memory chip bellwethers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which make up just over half of the benchmark KOSPI, ended 11.5 percent and 8.8 percent lower, respectively. Volatility in South Korean equity markets has been amplified by ETFs that are heavily weighted toward Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as forced buying and selling magnify moves in both chip stocks and the KOSPI beyond their fundamentals. Meanwhile, the won held its ground at 1,483.60 per US dollar, near a mid-May high, after the Bank of Korea delivered a highly…