Alibaba Falls 5%, Nio Sheds 3%: What's Weighing On Hong Kong Stocks Today

Shares of U.S.-listed Chinese companies were trading lower in Hong Kong on Monday, with major tech stocks like Alibaba Group Holdings BABA, Tencent Holdings TCEHY, Baidu Inc BIDU, and JD.com Inc JD slipping between 2% and 5%.

In the electric vehicle segment, Xpeng Inc XPEV, Li Auto Inc LI, and Nio Inc NIO cracked nearly 4% during the early trading hours.

Shares of these Chinese companies ended mixed on U.S. bourses on Friday.

Global Markets Recap: At press time, the benchmark Hang Seng Index traded 2.52% lower, following cues from Asian peers.

Elsewhere, Shanghai's SSE Composite Index was down 1.30%, Australia’s ASX 200 shed 0.55%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was nearly a percent higher.

Macro Factors:  Shanghai health officials said on Sunday said the city reported its first case from a new Omicron subvariant, triggering new rounds of mass testing and targeted lockdowns.

Meanwhile, all commercial and industrial businesses in Macau will be shut for at least a week from Monday as the authorities of China's special administrative region race to curb the surge of COVID-19 infections in the world's biggest gambling hub, Reuters reported.

According to SCMP, Sean Darby, global equity strategist at Jefferies, in a note published on Monday, said, “China is still a long way from a genuine recovery.”

“In contrast to the rest of the world, the Chinese consumer is not rebelling against the high cost of living but the inconvenience of the social restrictions and testing when Covid infections burst.”

Company In News: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on Sunday imposed fines on technology giants Alibaba and Tencent alongside other firms for failing to comply with anti-monopoly rules on the disclosure of transactions. The Chinese market regulator released a list of 28 deals that violated the rules.

During its second annual Power Day event, China-based EV maker Nio provided a peek into its future development plans for charging and battery technology. The company unveiled the 500 kW ultra-fast charging piles to compete with foreign peers like Tesla Inc TSLA, Electrek reported.