World shares are mixed and South Korea's Kospi has fallen 4.5% as investors unload more stocks linked to artificial intelligence

HONG KONG -- World shares were mixed on Monday and South Korea’s Kospi fell 4.5% as investors unloaded more stocks linked to artificial intelligence.

In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.4% to 10,561.22. France's CAC 40 was up 0.3% to 8,362.37, and Germany's DAX added 0.3% to 24,905.61.

Oil prices stabilized after rising earlier in the day as the U.S. and Iran moved closer to resuming an all-out war. Early Monday, the U.S. announced more attacks for a ninth straight night. Iran has been responding to U.S. strikes by hitting U.S. allies across the Middle East.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.4% to $87.77 per barrel but still remained much higher than prewar levels. Benchmark U.S. crude dropped 0.8% to $81.13 per barrel.

“The U.S. and Iran continue to exchange strikes, which are proving to be deadly for both sides,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a commentary Monday. “If this escalation goes unchecked, we could return to an environment of wide-scale attacks across the Persian Gulf.”

Tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global oil transport, have nearly ground to a halt, adding to pressures on supplies, they noted. On Monday, U.S. gas prices again surged to an average of $4 a gallon.

In Asia, Japan’s markets were closed Monday for a holiday. South Korea's Kospi, which has benefited substantially from the global AI frenzy, sank 4.5% to 6,516.27. Two of its most valuable stocks booked losses. Samsung Electronics lost 4.3%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix fell 4.2%.

Taiwan’s Taiex, also heavy in AI-related stocks, was 0.5% lower as its leading chipmaker, TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., climbed 1.3%. It had fallen 7.3% on Friday after the company announced it plans to spend an additional $100 billion to expand its chipmaking capacity in the U.S.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 2.4% to 25,143.05, while the Shanghai Composite index traded 0.9% higher at 3,796.28.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell less than 0.1% to 8,791.30. India's Sensex slipped 0.6%.