Shares of Apple suppliers fall after Barclays downgrades the iPhone maker

Hon Hai Technology Group, another major Apple supplier, also known as Foxconn, fell 1.33%. Taiwan-based Foxconn is the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer and assembles Apple's iPhones.

Technology and chip stocks including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell more than 2%, while LG Electronics fell 1.78%, dragging South Korea's Kospi index down 1.85%.

“We're seeing suppliers still seeing strong growth in the iPhone 15. We're in the middle of a supercycle,” Ray Wang of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research said on CNBC's Street Signs Asia.

“There are still 200 to 300 million iPhones that will be replaced by 5G, at least in the next 24 months, so I'm not entirely sure about a reduction in growth, but in terms of valuation, I can understand maybe that's where the hit will happen.” . Wang told CNBC on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Barclays downgraded Apple shares to underweight and cut its price target to $160 from $161, citing weak iPhone 15 sales, indicating potentially lower demand for the iPhone 16 and other products. Apple shares closed down 3.58% on Tuesday.

“We continue to see weakness in iPhone sales volumes and mix, as well as a lack of recovery in Macs, iPads and wearables,” analyst Tim Long said Tuesday in a note to clients.

TSMC is “poised for a strong rebound in 2024” and maintained a buy rating despite cutting its price target to NT$750 from NT$760, UBS said in a report dated January 3.

“We believe TSMC is well positioned for growth over the next 18 months from its very high share in 4nm and 3nm and its ability to build on cloud AI as well as being positioned to benefit from any upside in edge AI that lifts the endpoint markets.” The big ones are computers, smartphones and the Internet of Things, UBS said.

CNBC's Shreyashi Sanyal contributed to this report.