The arrest of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in Canada jolted market sentiment in Asia as investors assessed the economic and supply chain implications on an already-strained relationship between the U.S. and China .

Technology stocks across the region were under pressure, including many Huawei partners and suppliers.

Chipmaker Samsung tumbled 2.29 percent, Sunny Optical, which makes some of the lenses for Huawei phones, fell 5.47 percent and AAC Technologies declined 5.59 percent on the day. Chinasoft International, where Huawei is a strategic shareholder, dropped 11.71 percent.

Shares of Nikkei heavyweight SoftBank Group fell 4.93 percent. Last year, SoftBank and Huawei jointly demonstrated potential use of the next generation of high-speed mobile internet; SoftBank is taking its mobile unit public on Dec. 19.

The negative sentiment rippled through the broader Japanese tech sector, with shares of Tokyo Electron down 4.54 percent, Advantest falling 5.30 percent and TDK Corp dropping 6.64 percent.

Taiwan's major tech names also struggled: Catcher Technology fell 9.89 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor was down 2.65 percent, Largan Precision lost 9.94 percent and iPhone assembler Hon Hai dropped 3.63 percent. Asia's Apple suppliers, in general, saw Thursday declines.

Analysts at Jefferies pointed out that Huawei has a major global presence in various technology areas such as telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, smartphones and cloud computing. It also represents a major growth driver for many tech manufacturers.

Huawei's Meng, who is the daughter of the company's founder, faces extradition to the U.S., according to Canada's Department of Justice.

While the arrest represents a new escalation in American efforts to hold Chinese companies accountable for violation of U.S. laws, it is likely to elicit an angry reaction from Beijing, according to Eurasia Group.

"The investigation of Huawei could be a prelude to further action against the firm and its senior officials," the Eurasia Group analysts said, adding that if the U.S. places a sudden ban on Huawei equipment, like it did with ZTE, the impact would be much greater.

"Huawei equipment is more widely used (than ZTE is) by carriers around the world, including in Europe and Africa," they said.

ZTE shares listed in Hong Kong were down 5.94 percent on the day.

Both Huawei and ZTE are restricted from selling telecoms equipment in the U.S. due to what the U.S. describes as national security concerns.