Alibaba Edges Lower, Most Tech Peers Follow Suit: What's Dragging Hong Kong Stocks Today?

Shares of U.S.-listed Chinese tech giants mostly traded lower in Hong Kong on Friday as the benchmark index Hang Seng slid, despite positive global cues.

While Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA, JD.Com JD, and Baidu Inc BIDU traded in negative territory, Tencent Holdings TCEHY edged up 0.12%.

The Macro Factors: The benchmark Hang Seng Index was down 1.08% at the time of writing, dragging the index to its biggest monthly loss since July 2021. The Shanghai Composite Index was muted, while Australia’s ASX 200 was up 0.69%. Major Chinese tech stocks ended mostly higher in U.S. markets overnight.

China’s strengthened lockdown policy continued to weigh heavy on businesses sending its manufacturing to the lowest point since the early days of the pandemic.

China’s Securities Depository and Clearing Co clearing agency also said it would halve stock transfer fees from Friday to reduce investors’ trading costs and reinvigorate markets.

Companies In News: Alibaba Cloud has advanced its work to port Android to the RISC-V architecture. This could soon help Android devices to run on RISC-V chips.

According to Reuters, Alibaba plans to expand its Southeast Asian arm, Lazada, to Europe, as the Chinese e-commerce giant seeks to expand overseas growth amid slowing opportunities at home.

JD.com announced that it filed its annual report for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31 with the SEC. 

Meanwhile, analysts slashed earnings estimates for the Chinese technology giants for a second straight month amid the nation’s persistent goal of its zero-COVID strategy.