Why Australian tech shares are being smashed today

Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT), Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:KGN), and Xero Limited (ASX:XRO) shares are being smashed today. Here's what you need to know…

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The S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has continued its poor run on Tuesday and is down 0.5% to 5,664.3 points in morning trade.

While every single sector is currently in the red, the declines have been heaviest in the tech sector.

Why are tech shares sinking lower?

Australian tech shares have followed the lead of the U.S. counterparts which crashed lower overnight.

The FAANG stocks fell an average of 4% on Wall Street, dragging the Nasdaq technology index lower by just over 3%.

According to the Financial Times, the catalyst for this selloff was a flare-up of tensions between the United States and China at a "fractious Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit over the weekend."

In addition to this, concerns that chipmakers could get caught up in the trade war weighed heavily on investor sentiment.

Here is the state of play in the Australian tech sector this morning:

The Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) share price is down over 4% to $11.26.

The Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) share price has fallen 6% to $22.18.

The Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price is down almost 4% to $12.79.

The Bravura Solutions Ltd (ASX: BVS) share price has dropped over 2.5% to $4.16.

The Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN) share price is off 5.5% to $2.75.

The NEXTDC Ltd (ASX: NXT) share price is down 1.5% to $5.82.

The WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) share price has fallen 2% to $15.85.

The Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) share price has dropped 4% to $38.28.

Should you buy the dip?

While I think that the majority of these top tech shares would be great long-term investment options, I'm not overly convinced that they have bottomed just yet.

However, if you're prepared to hold onto these shares for the long-term, another 5% to 10% decline is unlikely to have too much of an impact on your returns if you're still holding onto them in 10 years.

My pick of the bunch are Appen and Altium, but all eight shares have market-beating potential over the next decade in my opinion.

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