Asia-Pacific markets traded lower Friday, tracking Wall Street declines, as fears over artificial intelligence disruption drove the S&P 500 to a third straight day of losses.
The Nikkei 225 was feeling for the bruises Friday, losing 697.87 points, or 1.2%, to 57,941.97.
Investors in Asia were watching for any spillover effects. Taiwan — among the most prominent market in the AI space — was closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Japanese and Indian IT stocks were down in Asia, with names like Trend Micro and NS Solutions dropping about 5.61% and 2.4%, respectively.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index tumbled 465.42 points, or 1.7%, to 26,568.12.
Hong Kong-listed Zhipu AI, that trades as Knowledge Atlas Technology, extended its rally on Friday, up 16%, after Thursday’s near-30% surge, building on investor enthusiasm around its newly launched open-source GLM-5 model.
MiniMax also added over 11%, extending gains from its last session, as momentum around its updated M2.5 model and enhanced AI agent tools continued to drive buying interest.
Beijing Haizhi Technology Group shares soared over 260% after a $97-million U.S. IPO.
Certain pockets of the U.S. stock market have been hit this year by the release of AI tools that threaten automating tasks performed by some companies — or at least risk eating into their profit margins.
CHINA
The CSI 300 in Shanghai wilted 59.17 points, or 1.3%, to 4,660.41.
Chinese tech stocks also fell, with Alibaba down 2.14% and Baidu more than 3% lower. Tech giant Meituan lost 3.06%.
In other markets
In Taiwan, markets were shuttered for holiday.
In Korea, the Kospi caved from its all -time high, shedding 15.26 points, or 0.3%, to 5,507.01
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index lost 78.98 points, or 1.6%. to 4,937.78
In Australia, the ASX surrendered 125.93 points, or 1.4%, to 8,917.61.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 retreated 333.3 points, or 2.5%, to 13,198.16.
