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 (NYSE:BABA), JD.Com (NASDAQ:JD), and Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) were down as much as 5%, Tencent Holdings (OTC: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.