Asian shares retreated from record highs on Friday as worries about shrinking margins in the tech sector hit the likes of Apple, driving investors into safe-haven bonds ahead of key US inflation data.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index opened 392 points, or 1.45 percent, lower at 26,640.

The China enterprises index was 112 points, or 1.2 percent, down at 9,062 while the tech index was lower by 85 points, or 1.6 percent, at 5,323.

On the mainland, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.44 percent at 4,115.

The Shenzhen Component Index was 0.66 percent lower at 14,188 while the ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, was down 0.56 percent at 3,309.

Overnight on Wall Street, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite ⁠tumbled 2 percent after Cisco Systems posted quarterly adjusted gross margin below estimates as costs of memory chips surged. That drove its shares down 12 percent and wiped out about US$40 billion of its market cap.

The selloff spilled over into tech giants like Apple, which tumbled 5 percent in the biggest daily drop since April when US President Donald Trump's sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs spooked markets.

Transportation companies also got caught up in worries about AI disruption.

"The prevailing tone in markets is a rotation towards more defensive areas of the equity market and companies with steady, less cyclical and more predictable earnings," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.

"It is clear that investors are ⁠viewing developments in AI and AGI (artificial general intelligence) through a new lens, attempting to price a future that feels ⁠more uncertain and structurally disruptive than ⁠before."

On Friday, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.6 percent, trimming this week's gain to 4.1 percent.

Japan's Nikkei skidded 0.9 percent but was still up 5.3 percent for the week. (Reuters/Xinhua)