Apple Inc. led shares of the largest technology companies lower in the first trading day of the year, suffering its worst decline in more than a month amid a broad market sell-off.

Shares of the iPhone maker fell as much as 4.5 per cent on Monday before recovering some of the losses to close down 2.5 per cent at US$129.41. The decline was the biggest since Nov. 23. Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. both fell more than 2 per cent, compared with a 1.5 per cent decline in the S&P 500 Index.

The U.S. equity market sank on Monday after ending 2020 at an all-time high. Technology megacaps including Apple and Amazon, which were among the top performers last year, were particularly hard hit in the sell-off, which was driven by concern that a surge in coronavirus cases could crimp the nascent economic recovery.

Apple was the best performing-stock in the group in 2020 after growing optimism about device and services sales helped fuel a December surge that cemented its lead over Amazon with an 81 per cent gain. Amazon ended the year with a 76 per cent gain.