South Korea's KOSPI, which opened sharply lower amid renewed debate over a bubble in the artificial intelligence industry and caution ahead of U.S. economic indicators due this week, pared losses and regained the 4,100 level in intraday trade.

As of 10:52 a.m. on Dec. 15, the KOSPI is down 65.48 points, or 1.57 percent, at 4,101.68 from the previous session.

The index opened down 113.42 points, or 2.72 percent, at 4,053.74. It slipped to 4,053.74 shortly after the open and has gradually narrowed its decline.

In Seoul's foreign exchange market, the won opens at 1,476.0 per dollar, down 2.3 won from the previous session.

In the main bourse, foreigners and institutions are net sellers of 5.09 trillion won and 188.2 billion won, respectively, weighing on the index. Individuals are net buyers of 764.0 billion won, moving into bargain hunting.

Foreigners also have a net selling bias of 584.2 billion won in the KOSPI200 futures market. Individuals are also net sellers of 164.7 billion won, while institutions alone posted a net buying bias of 763.0 billion won.

In the last trading session of last week on Dec. 12, Wall Street's three major indexes ended the day lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.51 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 fell 1.07 percent and the Nasdaq Composite slumped 1.69 percent.

Comments from Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, who mentioned concerns about margin deterioration at a post-earnings news conference despite relatively strong results, and worries over delays in Oracle's data center construction cooled sentiment toward technology shares.

Hawkish remarks from key Federal Reserve officials including Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack and Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee also injected uncertainty into the market.

In the domestic stock market that opened in that mood, Samsung Electronics is trading down 3.31 percent at 105,300 won and SK Hynix is down 3.50 percent at 551,000 won.

Most other top market-cap stocks are also lower.

Samsung Biologics is up 4.49 percent and Celltrion is up 0.64 percent. Hanwha Aerospace is down 4.99 percent, SK Square down 4.87 percent, Doosan Enerbility down 3.39 percent, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries down 3.32 percent, Hyundai Motor down 1.99 percent and Samsung C&T down 1.76 percent.

By sector, metals rose 3.81 percent, pharmaceuticals 2.33 percent, paper and wood 0.64 percent, textiles and apparel 0.57 percent and chemicals 0.39 percent. Construction fell 4.78 percent, electrical and electronics 2.94 percent, medical and precision 2.66 percent, transport equipment and parts 2.10 percent, and machinery and equipment 2.07 percent.

At the same time, the KOSDAQ is down 2.21 points, or 0.24 percent, at 935.13 from the previous session.

It opened down 11.74 points, or 1.25 percent, at 925.60 and slid to 921.09 before quickly recovering much of its loss.

In the KOSDAQ market, foreigners and institutions are net sellers of 4.9 billion won and 75.2 billion won, respectively. Individuals are net buyers of 107.8 billion won.

Top market-cap stocks were mixed.

Robotis is up 5.12 percent, ABL Bio up 3.37 percent, D&D Pharmatech up 1.48 percent and Kolon TissueGene up 0.86 percent. Pharmaresearch is down 3.17 percent, Lino Industrial down 2.67 percent, HLB down 1.87 percent and EcoPro down 0.99 percent.

[Yonhap News Agency]