Hong Kong stocks slammed by Meituan on Tencent divestment report, while developers surge on state financial backing
- Meituan sank by about 9 per cent after a Reuters report saying Tencent is considering selling part or all of its 17 per cent stake by this year
- Corporate earnings in focus as Li Auto and Sunny Optical failed to spark with their latest report cards and HKEX comes up next on Wednesday
The Hang Seng Index fell 1.1 per cent to 19,830.10 at the close of Tuesday trading to a one-week low. The Tech Index retreated 2 per cent while the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.1 per cent.
Meituan sank 9.1 per cent to HK$164.50. Tencent added 0.9 per cent to HK$303, after earlier losing about 2 per cent. The WeChat operator was considering selling part or all of its 17 per cent stake in Meituan within the year, Reuters reported, citing people it did not identify. Alibaba Group Holding retreated 2 per cent to HK$89.95.
“Tencent has been selling some of its investments in the past couple of years, there is a clear tendency seen from their dumping of JD.com shares as special dividend,” said Dickie Wong, executive director of research at Kingston Securities. “There is a very high possibility they may eventually sell Meituan as well.”
With 16 per cent of Chinese companies having reported their first-half earnings, average earnings are up 4 per cent compared with a year ago, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs in a Saturday report.
