South Korea stocks lead losses in Asia after Wall Street declines on tech sell-off

Asia-Pacific market fell across the board Tuesday, tracking Wall Street declines as investors continued to rotate out of the artificial intelligence trade in the U.S.

Shares of AI plays, like Oracle and Broadcom, slipped more than 5% and 2% respectively, while Microsoft also saw some losses.

Over in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi lost 2.24%, leading losses in Asia and closing at 3,999.13, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 2.42% to 916.11. This is the first time in nearly two weeks that the Kospi had fallen below the 4,000 mark.

Shares of Korea Zinc plunged almost 14% after the company reportedly agreed to sell $1.9 billion of shares to a joint venture controlled by the U.S. government and unnamed U.S.-based strategic investors, according to Reuters.

Medical treatment company ADEL signed a drug development deal with French pharma giant Sanofi worth up to $1.04 billion, according to the South Korean-based company late Monday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid 1.70%, weighed down by basic materials and education stocks. The mainland Chinese CSI 300 was down 1.06%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.56%, dragged by financial and energy stocks and finished at 49,383.29, while the Topix dropped 1.78% to 3,370.5. Japan’s flash composite PMI indicated a softer expansion in December, coming in at 51.5 compared to the previous month’s 52.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.42%, reversing earlier gains and closing at 8,598.9.

Flash purchasing managers index numbers from S&P Global showed that business activity expanded at a slower pace in Australia in December, with the composite PMI falling to 51.1 from November’s 52.6.