Why Alibaba, Tech Peers Are Slumping In Hong Kong Today

Shares of U.S.-listed Chinese tech firms traded in negative territory in Hong Kong on Thursday amid weak global cues. While Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA, JD.Com JD, and Baidu Inc BIDU were down as much as 5%, Tencent Holdings TCEHY was trading flat at press time.

Shares of these Chinese tech giants ended on a similar note overnight in U.S. markets.

Global Markets Recap: Erasing gains from the previous sessions, Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index slumped by 0.98%.

In the U.S., indices finished Wednesday's trading session lower. Elsewhere, in the broader markets, Australia's ASX 200 slipped over 1%, while Shanghai's SSE Composite Index was down 0.20%, and Japan's Nikkei 225 shed 0.84%.

Macro Factors: The Asian stocks echoed similar notes as their western peers and followed in the footsteps of the overnight sell-off in the U.S. markets. The U.S. Markets were highly volatile following the April consumer price index (CPI) report, which showed worse-than-expected inflation.

The headline CPI rose 8.3% in April, down slightly from 8.5% in March but above economist estimates of 8.1%. Prior to 2022, the CPI hadn't risen 8.3% in any month since 1982.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong Monetary Authority bought about HK$ 1.59 billion to prop up the currency, SCMP reported. The intervention by the de facto central bank is one of the first since 2019, as the country's currency was on a downtrend due to the rising interest rates in the United States.

Company In News: Amid the ongoing tech rout, Norges Bank sold about three-fourths of its holdings each in Alibaba Group. Alibaba's stock has been tumbling since late-2020 when the Chinese government first confronted the company for its anti-competitive practices.

Also, Alibaba founder Jack Ma was missing from its mass wedding ceremony, triggering curiosity over his role in the company.

According to Pandaily, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service platform, Apollo Go, officially began its services in Wuhan's Economic & Technological Development Zone (WHDZ) on Tuesday.