ASIA MIDDAY MOVES | Tech Selloff Drags Hong Kong Below 25,000 as Oil Tops $100; Nikkei, KOSPI, Taiwan Slip

According to Reuters, Sina Finance and UDN Money, Asian equities fell broadly at midday Thursday, with technology shares leading losses as Brent crude held above $100 a barrel for the first time since July and U.S. Treasury yields sat near multi-year highs ahead of key U.S. inflation data. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stood at 64,779.70, down 363.08 points or 0.56%, as of 04:32 UTC, with gains capped by a stronger yen as investors raised bets on a Bank of Japan rate hike this month; the broader TOPIX eased about 0.4%. Seoul's KOSPI was at 6,997.98, down 53.66 points or 0.76%, as of 04:32 UTC, weighed by chip heavyweights, with Samsung Electronics off 0.93% and SK Hynix down 0.54%. Hong Kong stocks led regional declines, with the Hang Seng Index at 24,949.52 at the midday break, down 1.29% and below the 25,000 mark, while the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 2.07% and the China Enterprises Index dropped 1.22%. Alibaba fell 3.64% to HK$105.80 and Meituan lost 3.41% to HK$75.15 as of 04:33 UTC, while Zhipu slid 7.88% to HK$841.50; oil names bucked the trend, with PetroChina up more than 1%. Taiwan's TAIEX was at 46,761.09, down 0.89% as of 04:32 UTC, having fallen more than 600 points to an intraday low of 46,573.47 as Apple-supply-chain names were left unmoved by the launch of the foldable iPhone Duo; TSMC eased about 1% to around NT$2,440, while Delta Electronics dropped more than 6%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite closed the morning down 0.35%, the Shenzhen Component fell 0.55%, the ChiNext Index eased 0.15% and the STAR Market Composite lost 0.81%, with half-day turnover of 1.09 trillion yuan and nearly 4,300 stocks lower; Unitree Robotics fell more than 2.6%, breaking below 500 yuan to a record low since listing, while banks bucked the weakness.