Why Alibaba And Tesla Rivals Xpeng, Li Auto Are Slumping In Hong Kong Today

Shares of U.S.-listed Chinese tech companies traded mostly lower in Hong Kong on Thursday, dragging the benchmark Hang Seng Index into negative territory.

See Also: How To Buy Xpeng Motors (XPEV) Stock

The Macro Factors: The Hang Seng Index was down 0.6% at the time of writing, retreating after a positive start.

Stronger efforts being made by the Hong Kong government to contain the COVID-19 pandemic had initially boosted sentiment.

Hong Kong plans to mass test the entire city from early March with help from Beijing, Bloomberg reported.

In addition, property developers and hotels have agreed to make rooms available to help address a shortage of isolation facilities, as per a report by the South China Morning Post.

However, investors turned cautious as they continued to monitor Russia-Ukraine tensions.

Companies In The News: China has added another 17 companies to the state-backed China Mobile Communications Association’s (CMCA) metaverse committee as part of efforts to develop the country’s metaverse applications, CNBC reported.

The CMCA is backed by major technology companies like Huawei and telecoms operator China Mobile. However, the development of China’s metaverse applications is not likely to feature cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), as per the report.

Shares of Chinese companies closed mostly lower in U.S. trading on Wednesday after the major averages ended mixed.