Alibaba, Tech Stocks Drag Hang Seng Lower As US Imposes More Sanctions - Alibaba Gr Holding (NYSE:BABA)

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA, JD.Com Inc. JD, Tencent Holdings Inc. TCEHY, Baidu Inc. BIDU, Li Auto Inc. LI and Xpeng Inc. XPEV fell in Hong Kong on Friday.

What’s Moving: Shares of the Chinese companies traded lower in a range of between 1% and 5% in Hong Kong.

Alibaba said at its investor day on Thursday that Southeast Asia-focused e-commerce unit Lazada grew 80% in the eighteen months ended September to hit 130 million annual active customers, TechCrunch reported.

Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index opened lower on Friday and was down 0.7% at the time of writing. The index closed 0.2% higher on Thursday, ending a four-session losing streak.

Why Is It Moving? The Hang Seng Index fell amid worries about rising U.S.-China tensions after the U.S. imposed sanctions on eight Chinese tech companies, including drone maker SZ DJI Technology Co. and artificial intelligence Megvii Technology.

The U.S. has also included several other Chinese companies to a trading blacklist for alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Meanwhile, the hawkish posture adopted by central banks also weighed on the market. the Bank of England unexpectedly hiked interest rates on Thursday, and the European Central Bank announced plans to reduce bond purchases.

Tesla Inc. TSLA has filed lawsuits against some of its customers in China, as it attempts to silence its critics in the country, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The Elon Musk-led company’s in-house lawyers have also threatened legal action against social media personalities for publishing posts criticizing the EV maker.

Shares of Chinese companies closed lower in U.S. trading on Thursday as a sell-off by major tech stocks, including Apple Inc. AAPL, dragged the major averages lower.

Alibaba’s shares closed 1.8% lower, while Nio’s shares ended lower by almost 2.3%.

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