- Uncertainty pervaded over many Chinese Internet companies Friday following DiDi Global's (NYSE:DIDI) announcement that it will delist its shares from the New York Stock Exchange.
- DiDi (DIDI) shares gave up as much as 13% as investors reacted to the Chinese ride-sharing leader saying late Thursday that it will seek to move its stock listing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company gave no precise date for the move, but said in a statement that it would have its shareholders vote on delisting from the NYSE "at an appropriate time in the future."
- DiDi's (DIDI) plans were seen as in reaction to reports that the Cyberspace Administration of China had asked company officials to work up a plan to delist its shares from stock markets in the United States. Chinese regulators have been cracking down on many of the country's largest tech companies this year over matters ranging from anti-competitive business practices to the management and security of consumers' data, and now speculation is likely to grow over whether or not more Chinese tech companies that trade in the U.S. will depart for stock exchanges back at home.
- Among leading Chinese Internet companies, Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) was off by almost 10%, and fell to a 52-week-low of $109.80 a share. Alibaba (BABA) now trades at less than half of its 52-week-high of $274.29, which it reached on Feb. 16.
- Chinese Internet search giant Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) wasn't doing any better than Alibaba (BABA), as its shares fell more than 10%. Social media platform company Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) was down by almost 11% and e-commerce kingpin JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) saw its shares fall more than 12%.
- The guilt-by-association situation extended to the likes of online gaming company Bilibili (NASDAQ:BILI), which fell 7%; JOYY Inc. (NASDAQ:YY), as the social-media platform developer shares dropped 11%, and gaming and communications company NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES), which fell more than 5%.
- It was also no surprise that companies with investments in DiDi (DIDI) were in the red, Friday. Uber (NYSE:UBER), which owns about 13% of DiDi (DIDI), fell 5%, and Tencent Holdings (OTCPK:TCEHY) shares gave up more than 4%. Softbank (OTCPK:SFTBY), which reportedly sold a 45 million block of its Uber (UBER) shares in the summer to make up for its losses in DiDi (DIDI) was down by 1.1%.
- The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (NYSEARCA:KWEB) was also bruised, falling 8% to its lowest level in 20 months.
- DiDi's (DIDI) plans to delist its shares from the NYSE also came on the heels of a report that China intends to block Chinese companies from using variable interest entities, or VIEs, to go public in foreign countries.