Alibaba Falls 1%, Nio Gains 4%: What's Weighing On Hong Kong Stocks Today

Shares of major U.S.-listed Chinese companies were trading mixed in Hong Kong on Thursday, as major tech stocks like Alibaba Group Holdings BABA and Tencent Holdings TCEHY slipped, while Baidu Inc BIDU and JD.com Inc JD were trading higher.

In the electric vehicle segment, Li Auto Inc LI led gains, while Nio Inc NIO and Xpeng Inc XPEV gained at least 2% each in early trading.

Shares of these companies ended mixed on U.S. bourses as well on Wednesday.

Global Markets Recap: At press time, the benchmark Hang Seng Index was muted as the investors struggled for direction.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.27% higher after two straight sessions of losses this week.

Elsewhere, Shanghai's SSE Composite Index was up 1.04%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 shed 0.91%, and Singapore's SGX Nifty traded mutedly.

Macro Factors: China's factory activity expanded for the first time in four months. According to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 50.2 in June from 49.6 in May, marking the first expansion since February.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also urged action to curb rising joblessness to aid the struggling economy as the headline urban unemployment rate climbed to 5.9% last month, SCMP reported.

Company In News: Alibaba chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang Yong penned an article in China cyberspace administration's official magazine, where he promoted the positive role of Alibaba technology in Chinese society.

Tencent Games, at its annual conference, SPARK 2022, said it is exploring expanding the application of game-related technologies to other sectors, CGTN reported.

JD.Com on Wednesday said it would issue shares worth $220 Million to Tencent over a three-year period to access certain services on the latter's social media platform WeChat.

After Nio called the short-seller research ‘misleading,’ CFRA analyst Lim Jian Xiong also dismissed the report. The analyst said the allegations in the short-seller report have no impact on his outlook for the company shares.

Photo via Kapi Ng on Shutterstock