Japan's Nikkei share average tracked losses on Wall Street and fell to a two-week low on Tuesday, with technology stocks slipping after US counterparts were hit by Apple Inc's slide. The Nikkei was down 3.21 per cent at 21,554.45 at the midday break after going as low as 21,484.65, its weakest since October 30.

Weighing on the tech-heavy Nasdaq, Apple  shares fell 5.0 per cent on Monday after several suppliers to the company, including Lumentum Holdings Inc, cut their forecasts. In turn, Apple-linked shares in Tokyo retreated. Japan Display Inc  sank more than 7 per cent, Murata Manufacturing Co  lost 4.1 per cent, Minebea Mitsumi  slid 4.7 per cent and TDK Corp  lost 8.2 per cent.

Other technology shares also fell in the wake of the overnight US retreat, with Tokyo Electron  falling 3.1 per cent, Screen Holdings  shedding 5.3 per cent and Advantest Corp   losing 4.9 per cent. Sony Corp  was down 4.6 per cent.

“A fair number of factors are weighing on the market currently, such as seeming weakness in some US tech giants and lingering worries about the Chinese economy,” said Yoshinori Shigemi, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.

Automakers sagged following news that the US Commerce Department submitted draft recommendations to the White House on its investigation into whether to impose tariffs of up to 25 per cent on imported cars and parts on national security grounds.

Toyota Motor Corp  lost 3 per cent, Nissan Motor Co  dropped 2 per cent and Honda Motor  was down 3.2 per cent. Toshiba Corp  bucked Monday's trend and rose 3.3 per cent after announcing that it would repurchase up to 192.6 million shares, or 30 per cent of its outstanding stock.

All of Tokyo's 33 subindexes were in the red. The broader Topix was down 2.8 per cent at 1,625.09.

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