Hong Kong: Asian markets mostly fell Friday as investors struggled to maintain the previous day's positive momentum following losses on Wall Street, with technology firms tracking a sharp fall in Apple.
While worries about the Syrian crisis and a potential China-US trade war keep dealers on edge, focus has for now moved to the corporate arena as the earnings season gets into full swing.
All three main Wall Street indexes fell Thursday after a mixed bag of business reports with market giant Procter & Gamble posting lacklustre results, while rising US Treasury yields also spooked investors worried about higher interest rates.
But the big news was a near-three percent plunge in Apple, which came after major chip supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) forecast sales for the present quarter would be about $1 billion down on analyst forecasts.
This fuelled concerns that the smartphone sector, a massive driver of revenue for tech firms, including Apple and Samsung, was beginning to wane. The tech-rich Nasdaq lost 0.8 percent in New York.
Asia-listed Apple suppliers and other tech firms fell. In Taipei, market heavyweight TSMC plunged more than six percent and Foxconn lost 1.2 percent. Alps shed 1.8 percent in Tokyo, while Seoul-listed LG Display was off 1.2 percent.
South Korean titan Samsung was more than two percent lower, while AAC Technologies sank 7.3 percent in Hong Kong.
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