Shares in JSE-listed technology and media group Naspers took a battering on Friday as investors turned sour on Tencent, the fast-growing Chinese communications and e-commerce company that owns chat programs WeChat and QQ.
Reuters reported that Naspers’s shares were off by their biggest one-day amount in two-and-a-half years following a sell-off in Tencent, in which it holds an approximate one-third stake.
Naspers shares have skyrocketed in the past year on the back of investor interest in Tencent, sending the South African company’s market capitalisation to above R500bn.
According to Reuters, investors began dumping Tencent shares after the central bank in China ordered that some mobile payment methods used by Internet companies be halted because of concerns about the security used. The wires agency said Tencent shares fell by as much as 7% on the Hong Kong bourse before clawing back some ground to close down by just over 4%.
At lunchtime, the Naspers share price was trading off by 5,5% at R1 215,62. It had earlier touched an intraday low of R1 182,28. The counter has added 106% in the past 12 months and 27,7% in the past 90 days.
On Tuesday this week, the share touched a fresh all-time high of R1 354,09/share.
Naspers, which also owns pay-television broadcaster MultiChoice and a host of legacy newspaper assets, has seen its share price rocket higher in recent years thanks to its investments in e-commerce and other Internet assets in emerging markets and underpinned largely by Tencent. — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media