Global tech shares have been rocked in 2022 as equity markets test themselves against a morphing investment landscape.
Whilst Australian benchmarks like the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) have snapped back in the past month of trade, the tech index has failed to enjoy such a luxury.
Instead, the S&P All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) started the year up at 2,984 and slipped down to 2,536 by the quarter's end, eventually booking a 15% loss.
Now as yields on government bonds – also used as the discount rate in share valuations – surge past 3% for the first time in years, pressure remains on heavily volatile tech shares at present.
The trend's been in situ since trade restarted back in January, and there have been some seriously underwhelming performances in that time. Here's a look at the laggards in the tech industry from last quarter.
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Last place in from March quarter goes to…
Undoubtedly there was some serious carnage last quarter for ASX tech shares. Taking the bottom 41 names in descending order, as a group, the average loss was 31.84% whilst the median loss (exactly in the middle) was 28.43%.
Leading the way was Cettire Ltd (ASX: CTT) with a stunning 68% loss for the three months, whilst Advanced Human Imaging Ltd (ASX: AHI) also lost 67%.
Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL) wasn't far behind printing a 55.5% backstep for the quarter, whilst Marley Spoon AG (ASX: MMM) topped out the number 10 spot, with a 46% slippage.
In fact, checking a list of the top and bottom performing ASX tech names provided by Bloomberg data, the two top performing names were Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN) and Computershare Ltd (ASX: CPU) at 42% and 24.80% respectively.
However, there were only 6 names that finished in the green, with all the other tickers posted in the top and bottom performing stocks each falling deep into the red.
As a basket, tech shares have been weighed down by a number of non-specific macroeconomic catalysts. Most easy to see is the rotation out of growth and tech shares back into defensible such as mining and financials.
But there's more at play, as we've now got the first conflict in Europe in decades, and let's not forget that crazy little virus called COVID-19.
With the current commodity inflation, backed by the prospects of rising interest rates, this only adds fuel to the fire in these two industries, which appear to have stolen the gains tech shares posted last year.
Not only that, but the tech industry's earnings per share (EPS) are also the lowest in the last 7 years for the segment, according to Bloomberg data.
It remains to be seen where the direction of earnings will go from here.
