In early afternoon trade the S&P/ASX 200 index is in selloff mode and has dropped 0.85% to 6,180.7 points.
One of the biggest drags on the market on Friday has been the information technology sector. A number of popular tech shares have been sold off, leading to the S&P/ASX 200 Info Tech index dropping a disappointing 2.1% this afternoon.
Here is the current state of play in the sector:
The Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) share price is down 4.5% to $31.06.
The Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price has fallen 5% to $22.31.
The Bravura Solutions Ltd (ASX: BVS) share price has dropped 6.5% to $5.06.
The Nearmap Ltd (ASX: NEA) share price is down 4% to $2.86.
The WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) share price has tumbled 5% to $22.07.
The Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) share price has dropped 3% to $49.54.
Why are tech shares being sold off?
With no news out of these companies or broker notes that I'm aware of, today's decline appears to be a combination of profit taking and investors switching to risk off assets.
After all, even after the sizeable decline today, the S&P/ASX 200 Info Tech index is still up almost 22% since the start of the year. So I can't say I'm surprised to see tech shares getting hit during this market volatility.
One group of shares benefiting from this selloff has been the gold miners. At the time of writing the S&P/ASX All Ords Gold index is up 1.2%.
Not all tech shares are in the red.
One exception is the Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) share price which has managed to avoid the selloff and climb 3%. This appears to have been driven by a broker note out of Goldman Sachs this morning.
After revising its valuation approach and upgrading its estimates following a review of the latest indicators in the U.S. market, the broker retained its conviction buy rating and lifted the price target on its shares from $21.00 up to $27.10.
