Tencent Holdings added to Friday’s sharp decline to start the week, helping lead weakness in technology shares after the US’s move to ban residents from doing business with the company’s WeChat app.
The stock fell as much as 4.6% on Monday morning, approaching Friday’s lowest level. Tencent lost US$35-billion of market value to end last week as investors weighed the vaguely worded order, which initially triggered fears that it applied to a number of the Internet giant’s operations.
Tech stocks in Hong Kong led declines in the city on Monday, with the Hang Seng Tech Index falling as much as 3.3%. The sector was also among the weakest performers in China, with the ChiNext Index dropping more than 1%.
Deteriorating relations between the US and China are raising investor concerns about the geopolitical impact on economies and markets. In addition to the the WeChat ban, President Donald Trump also signed an order to prevent US residents from doing business with ByteDance’s TikTok app starting in six weeks. — Reported by Kevin Kingsbury, (c) 2020 Bloomberg LP