Asian shares slide, South Korea's Kospi down 5.2% as AI stocks fall

Shares slipped Wednesday in Asia after Wall Street pulled further from its all-time high as artificial-intelligence stocks resumed their decline.

South Korea's Kospi led the regional retreat, dropping 5.2 per cent to 6,515.97.

The two biggest companies benefiting from the AI boom tracked losses for their US rivals.

Samsung Electronics shed 6.9 per cent, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix tumbled 7.9 per cent.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 sank 2.6 per cent to 65,703.78.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.4 per cent to 25,382.66, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 1.5 per cent to 3,927.70.

Taiwan's Taiex fell 1.4 per cent, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4 per cent to 9,083.70.

Apart from renewed jitters over criticism that AI-related stocks have shot too high, rising oil prices also were clouding market sentiment.

Crude prices have been swinging sharply due to uncertainty about when and whether the United States and Iran can reach a deal to allow oil tankers to exit the Persian .