What's Going On With Alibaba Stock Friday?

Alibaba Group Holding Limited's BABA market value has plunged to about half that of rival Tencent Holdings Ltd TCEHY as it battled the double whammy of sluggish demand and brewing competition from the likes of PDD Holdings Inc PDD.

On Thursday, the Jack Ma co-founded e-commerce giant reported second-quarter FY23 revenue growth of 9% year-on-year to $30.81 billion, beating the consensus of $30.77 billion. Adjusted earnings per ADS of $2.14 beat the consensus of $2.11. 

Taobao and Tmall Group revenue grew 4% Y/Y to $13.39 billion. Cloud Intelligence Group grew by 2% Y/Y to $3.79 billion.

Alibaba put the Freshippo (Hema) IPO offering on hold. Meanwhile, the additional semiconductor embargo on China by the U.S. posed uncertainties for the prospects of Cloud Intelligence Group. 

Alibaba has a market capitalization of $201 billion, while Tencent, focused on social media and gaming, boasts $384 billion, Bloomberg reports.

The report cited Willer Chen of Forsyth Barr Asia Ltd, who flagged Alibaba's challenges due to a slow consumption recovery in China, increased competition in e-commerce, and heightened regulatory concerns, all of which have negatively impacted investor sentiment.

China had penalized Alibaba a record 18 billion yuan in 2021 for antitrust violations.

In July 2023, China ended its regulatory overhaul on fintech affiliate Ant Group by imposing a penalty of 7.12 billion yuan.

Price Action: BABA shares traded lower by 3.93% at $76.00 premarket Friday.