Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway has slashed its stake in Apple  in half as part of a selling spree by dumping £76bn of stocks, generating huge investment profits, as investors are fretting over a possible US recession and dumped risky assets. Tokyo’s Topix fell 12.2 per cent, the sharpest fall since Black Monday in October 1987. On Wall Street tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index fell 6.3 per cent at the open, while the S&P 500 lost 4.1 per cent, before both pared their losses. The Vix Index of expected US stock market turbulence known as Wall Street’s fear gauge jumped above 65 points, the highest level since 2020.

The company cut its position in Apple by more than $50bn to $84.2bn in the second quarter, generating huge investment profits, according to filing published on Saturday.

The data suggested that Berkshire has sold 390mn Apple shares, which lifted Berkshire’s cash holdings to a record $277bn, up $88bn from the previous quarter. The company reinvested those proceeds into short-term Treasuries, as Buffett scaled back in US equity markets. Buffett believed Apple would remain one of the conglomerate’s big holdings, listing it among core long-term investments including Coca-Cola and American Express. In 2016, Buffett bought into Apple, as Berkshire spent $40bn on its shares. “ The valuation discipline Buffett talks about as core to his decisions is at the forefront of his thoughts”