Asian equities were mostly lower on Thursday as Wall Street’s early New Year rally lost momentum.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 1.6pc to 51,117.26, led lower by technology stocks. SoftBank slid 7.6pc, while semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Electron dropped 4pc.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.2pc to 26,143.17. However, shares in OpenAI rival Zhipu surged by as much as 15pc above their offer price in the company’s trading debut.
Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite edged down nearly 0.1pc to 4,082.98.
South Korea’s Kospi, which touched record levels earlier this week, was broadly flat, adding less than 0.1pc to 4,552.37.
Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3pc to 8,720.80, while Taiwan’s Taiex slipped more than 0.2pc.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed nearly 1pc lower after earlier hitting a fresh high following reports of the capture of Nicolás Maduro by US forces.
The benchmark S&P 500 fell 0.3pc by the close, also retreating from record levels, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended almost 2pc higher.
