Kospi plunges almost 2%, dragged by tech sell-off, as Asia-Pacific markets mostly fall

South Korea markets led declines in Asia-Pacific Thursday, tracking Wall Street losses as the tech sell-off gained momentum.

Seoul’s Kospi index tumbled 3.86% to 5,163.57, leading losses in Asia, as chip heavyweights Samsung and SK Hynix fell 5.8% and 6.44%, respectively.

Other top losers included defense giant Hanwha Aerospace, which declined 7.33%. The small-cap Kosdaq was down 3.57% to 1,108.41.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.88%, closing at 53,818.04 and retreating from a record high. Investment firm SoftBank Group Corp declined over 7% after chip designer Arm’s fiscal third quarter licensing sales missed estimates.

However, Japanese electronics manufacturer Panasonic jumped 8.41%, even as the company reported worse revenue and net profit numbers for its fiscal third quarter ended December.

Adjusted operating profit, however increased to 159.1 billion yen ($1.03 billion), a 5.59% gain from the same period a year before. The adjusted operating profit strips out restructuring costs of 129.3 billion yen.

The broad-based Topix reversed gains after being the only index in positive territory earlier, falling marginally to 3,652.41 and also coming off a record high.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slumped 0.22%, and the mainland Chinese CSI 300 was down 0.56%. Both indexes were dragged by basic materials stocks.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.43%, closing at 8,889.2.

Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 slid 0.51% for back to back losses, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.53%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.51%.

Notably, Advanced Micro Devices plunged 17% after its first-quarter forecast underwhelmed some analysts. Broadcom and Micron Technology also suffered major losses, falling about down 3.8%, while the latter fell 9.5%.

Bitcoin declined more than 3%, hovering just above the $73,000 level, after falling below that mark earlier.

—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.