Tech stocks hammered in day two of sell-off

TECHNOLOGY stocks suffered fresh losses last night in a further sign that their extraordinary rally has run out of steam.

The tech-dominated Nasdaq, which has soared this year amid companies from Amazon to Zoom cashing in on the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, fell another 2.5pc in New York. The benchmark has lost 8pc of its value in the two sessions since hitting a new record high on Wednesday – but it is still up more than 30pc this year.

The so-called ‘Faang’ stocks – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google owner Alphabet – were down between 2pc and 5pc while Microsoft fell 3pc and Zoom sank 5pc. Tesla fell sharply in early trading before recovering. It has lost 18pc of its value in the past four days.

Apple has fallen 12pc in just three days – and is no longer worth more than the entire FTSE100 index as it was earlier this week.

The tech rout has also dented the fortunes of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott. Having become the first person to amass a fortune of $200bn, Bezos has seen his wealth slip back below that milestone, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The sell-off spread to other markets with the FTSE100 index down 51.78 points to 5799.08.

Among the biggest losers in London were the tech-heavy Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, Polar Capital Technology Trust and Allianz Technology Trust, which fell up to 7pc.

Tech stocks have soared this year as the coronavirus crisis boosted online shopping via Amazon and demand for technology provided by the likes of Apple and Zoom.

Adrian Lowcock, head of personal investing at investment platform Willis Owen, said: ‘If you don’t take profits, the market will do it for you and it is important to remember that a profit is only a profit if you actually sell.’