JD Tumbles 8% In Hong Kong As Tencent Cuts Stake, Hang Seng Extends Gains

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) and JD.Com Inc. (NASDAQ: JD) fell in Hong Kong on Thursday, while Tencent Holdings Inc. (OTC: TCEHY), Li Auto Inc. (NASDAQ: LI), Xpeng Inc. (NYSE: XPEV) and Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) traded higher.

What’s Moving: Shares of Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com tumbled almost 8% in Hong Kong, while tech conglomerate Tencent gained almost 5%.

WeChat operator Tencent said it will distribute the majority of its shares in JD.com, valued at HKD 127.7 billion ($16.4 billion), to its shareholders as an interim dividend, effectively diluting its stake in JD.Com from around 17% to about 2.3%.

Tencent President Martin Lau will step down as a director of JD.Com, effective Thursday.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s shares fell over 1% in Hong Kong, while shares of Baidu, Li Auto and Xpeng are higher in a range of 1% to 3%.

Chinese regulators suspended an information-sharing partnership with Alibaba Group’s Alibaba Cloud Computing unit, it was reported, citing Reuters.

See Also: How To Buy Alibaba (BABA) Stock

Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index opened higher on Thursday and was up almost 0.5% at the time of writing. The index closed almost 0.6% higher on Wednesday. 

Why Is It Moving? The Hang Seng Index rose for a third straight day as shares of Tencent rallied following news of the company’s plan to cut its stake in JD.com. The move comes amid China’s continuing crackdown on the tech sector. 

Nevertheless, investors remained cautious amid rising COVID-19 cases in the Chinese city of Xi’an. The city has ordered its 13 million residents to stay at home as it struggles to contain the surge in cases, Reuters reported.

Shares of Chinese companies closed mixed in U.S. trading on Wednesday even as the major averages in the U.S. extended gains from the previous session. The gains on Wall Street come after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the emergency use of Pfizer Inc.’s (NYSE: PFE) antiviral pill Paxlovid for the treatment of COVID-19.

Alibaba’s shares closed 4.2% lower, while Nio’s shares ended lower by 1.0%.

It was reported that China's official state-owned media outlet Xinhua plans to launch a non-fungible token (NFT) collection, with the move coming even as the Chinese government took strong measures to clamp down on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) in the country.

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