Asian equities moved lower on Thursday as a recent rally on Wall Street showed signs of losing momentum, dragging major regional indices into negative territory. The pullback underscored the close linkage between Asian markets and US equities, where capital flows and sentiment in the world's largest stock market frequently set the tone for trading across the Asia-Pacific region.

South Korea's Kospi led the regional decline, tumbling as much as 5%. The index is heavily weighted toward technology and semiconductor companies, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, making it particularly sensitive to shifts in global chip sector sentiment. The sell-off reflected broad-based weakness across Asian markets as investors reassessed risk appetite following the stalling of the US market rebound.

Shares of SpaceX plunged 14% despite the company reporting robust earnings. The drop came as investors braced for a significant increase in the stock's float, with approximately $101 billion worth of SpaceX shares set to become tradeable on Thursday — an event typically associated with lock-up expirations that allow previously restricted insiders and early investors to sell their holdings. Such expirations can create substantial selling pressure as the available supply of shares expands sharply, even when underlying business performance remains strong.

The downward pressure on SpaceX added to the broader gloom surrounding chip-related stocks, which were already under strain following quarterly results from SanDisk and Western Digital. The two memory storage companies' earnings reports disappointed market participants, souring sentiment across the semiconductor and storage technology supply chain.

The weakness in chip names and the SpaceX share overhang contributed to a risk-off tone across the region, amplifying losses in technology-heavy Asian benchmarks.

Source: CNBC-TV18 Markets