It certainly has not been a good month to own ASX tech shares. As we reported this morning, the S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) is way past being in a technical 'correction' (a drop of 10% from the most recent high). In fact, it is now on the edge of being in an actual bear market (a drop of 20%-plus), since it has fallen more than 18% since 10 February.
The phrase 'bear market' hasn't been in play on the ASX for almost a year now, so this is certainly a dramatic turn of fortune.
So which ASX tech shares have been hardest hit over the past month?
10 of the hardest-hit ASX tech shares
- Limeade Inc (ASX: LME) – Limeade is one of the worst-hit ASX tech shares, down around 43% from where it was a month ago. Limeade had a shocker last Monday in particular when investors made their feelings known about the company's full-year earnings results.
- Nuix Ltd (ASX: NXL) – Nuix has also had a disastrous month, falling more than 42% since 9 February, despite rocketing close to 17% today. This company remains more than 30% down from its December 2020 IPO.
- Tesserent Ltd (ASX: TNT) – Network security company Tesserent has lost around 32% of its valuation over the past month. This appears to have been accelerated by a poor reaction to this company's half-year earnings back on 1 March as well.
- Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) – As a leading ASX growth share and a rocket of a performer for years now, Afterpay was always going to be caught up in any kind of growth or tech sell-off. And lo and behold, it came to pass. Afterpay shares are down just a tad over 30% over the past month.
- Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT) – Buy now, pay later (BNPL) player Splitit has had a rough month, losing 28.28% of its value since 9 February. BNPL companies (see above) have been especially hard-hit in this tech sell-off, and Splitit is no exception. As we reported this morning, trading volumes have been especially high this week.
- Damstra Holdings Ltd (ASX: DTC) – Damstra shares have been on a slide for a few months now, but the past month has seen sellers step on the gas, sending the shares down almost 28%. Earnings may have played a role here, given Damstra reported an after-tax loss of $5.5 million last month.
- Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) – WAAAXer Appen has seen its shares lose about 27% of their value since 9 February. Again, earnings didn't give investors a lot of confidence, but Appen has also been out of favour for months now since peaking in August last year.
- ELMO Software Ltd (ASX: ELO) – Elmo shares are down close to 25% over the past month. Earnings weren't a factor here, so we can probably put this one down to general unenthusiasm for ASX tech shares. Interestingly though, Elmo insiders have been buying shares lately, as we reported last week.
- Bigtincan Holdings Ltd (ASX: BTH) – Bigtincan has also copped a beating, down close to 25% over the month. This software-as-a-service (SaaS) company reported a seemingly strong set of earnings numbers last month, but that hasn't been enough to stop investors from hitting the sell button since then.
- Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) – Zip is more of a bonus inclusion today. This BNPL company is 'only' down 8.8% over the past month, which doesn't seem too shabby compared to the ASX tech shares above. But if we go from 16 February rather than 9, we can see that Zip is down 37.5% from those highs. Ouch!
