New Zealand shares fell Tuesday as a tech-led decline on Wall Street dragged the benchmark index, while Asian shares were mixed amid Lunar New Year festivities.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index was down 0.3%, or 42.55 points, to close at 12,957.15.

Amid a broader sell-off by US tech stocks, New Zealand's electronic technology segment led the benchmark index's decline as it fell nearly 2%.

Meanwhile, shares in Asia were mixed ahead of the Lunar New Year, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng flat and Japan's Nikkei 225 down 1%. The Shanghai market is closed from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4.

Overnight, the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 were down 3.1% and 1.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%. The emergence of a large language model - produced at a fraction of the cost - from Chinese startup DeepSeek sent shockwaves across markets and threatened the foothold of AI players such as Nvidia and Microsoft.

Despite the initial market reaction, established industry players could benefit from such cost advantages in the long run, said TS Lombard analyst Andrea Cicione.

"History shows that cost advantages often lead to more investment, not less. Nvidia could therefore benefit from these trends, as more affordable AI solutions could boost demand for its chips, enabling investment in capacity and innovation," Cicione said.

In domestic news, New Zealand's seasonally adjusted filled jobs across all industries inched 0.1% higher to 2.4 million in December 2024, following a 0.2% monthly uptick in November, according to Stats NZ data.

Enterprise entries totaled 10,044 in December, compared with 4,674 entries in the prior month, Stats NZ said separately. Enterprise exits reached 3,294, down from 10,122 in the prior month.

In corporate news, SKY Network Television (NZE:SKT, ASX:SKT) said it is on track to migrate to a new satellite by May while noting "inherent technology and logistical risks" to the process. The company's shares were down almost 2%.

Pacific Edge (NZE:PEB, ASX:PEB) said the Medicare coverage for its flagship Cxbladder test has been extended by two months to Thursday, April 24. The cancer diagnostics company's shares were up nearly 7% at market close.