U.S.-traded Chinese stocks finish lower as ban momentum grows

MW UPDATE: U.S.-traded Chinese stocks finish lower as ban momentum grows

By Wallace Witkowski

NYSE flip-flops back to delisting 3 Chinese telecoms, while U.S. officials are reportedly considering banning Tencent, Alibaba

U.S.-traded shares of Chinese companies fell Wednesday as the New York Stock Exchange changed its mind once again on whether or not to delist a trio of China-based telecom stocks, and on a report that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. may be next.

On Wednesday, the NYSE said it would delist American depositary receipts .

While ADRs of China Mobile finished down 5.5% and China Unicom dropped 27%, China Telecom ADRs, which had been down as much as 7% in the regular session, rallied at the last minute to finish up 3.7%.

On Tuesday, U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies rallied after the NYSE said late Monday it would not delist the companies, reversing a decision announced on Dec. 31 that it would.

The exchange's back-and-forth action all stems from an executive order scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 11.

Then, later in Wednesday's session, U.S. shares of other Chinese companies, which had already been slightly down on the NYSE development, fell further following a report to the list of banned companies.

ADRs of Tencent, with a public market cap of more than $700 billion, finished down 4%, while Alibaba, with a cap of more than $600 billion, dropped 5.3%.

Similarly, U.S.-traded shares of Pinduoduo Inc. $(PDD)$ fell 5.6%, JD.com Inc. $(JD)$ fell 7.7% and Baidu Inc. (K3SD.SG) declined 4.7%.

Accordingly, the KraneShares China Internet ETF $(KWEB)$ closed down 2.9%, while the iShares MSCI China ETF $(MCHI)$ declined 2.1%.

-Wallace Witkowski; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

$(END)$ Dow Jones Newswires

January 06, 2021 17:40 ET (22:40 GMT)

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