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Hong Kong stock market
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Tencent, BYD slam Hong Kong stocks in US$26 billion sell-off as insiders retreat while China tightens rules on ChatGPT-like services

  • Tencent slumped by the most since January 30 as Prosus unveiled a plan to sell another 96 million shares, worth about US$4.4 billion, to fund its stock buyback
  • Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sold 2.48 million shares in BYD in Hong Kong to reduce its stake to 10.9 per cent

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A pedestrian looks at the electronic screen displaying the stock price of Hang Seng members in Mong Kok, Hong Kong. Photo: Winson Wong
Jiaxing Li
Hong Kong stocks weakened amid a HK$205 billion (US$26.1 billion) sell-off in Tencent Holdings and BYD as corporate insiders continued to cut their holdings. Alibaba Group and other tech leaders extended losses amid regulatory scrutiny on ChatGPT-like services.
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The Hang Seng Index lost 0.9 per cent to 20,309.86 at the closing of Wednesday’s trading, the most since March 27. The Tech Index tumbled 1.9 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index of onshore equities ended the day with a 0.4 per cent gain.

Tencent slumped 5.2 per cent to HK$357.20 and EV maker BYD declined 2.3 per cent to HK$222.60, erasing a HK$186 billion and HK$19 billion from their respective market value. JD.com retreated 3.5 per cent to HK$153 and Alibaba slipped 3.3 per cent to HK$96.05 while Baidu lost 0.9 per cent to HK$134. The Cybersecurity Administration of China earlier this week drafted new rules to control artificial intelligence-related services.
Tencent suffered the biggest drop since a 6.7 per cent sell-off on January 30. Amsterdam-listed Prosus said on Tuesday it will deposit 96 million shares into the clearing system in Hong Kong this week for trading. The block, about 1 per cent of Tencent’s share capital, is worth about US$4.4 billion at current market price.
Prosus, which owns more than a quarter of Tencent, raised US$7.2 billion in 2022 by selling 193.4 million shares of the Shenzhen-based WeChat operator to fund its own stock repurchase programme.

The insider selling “affected the trends in other large tech stocks, which is the main reason for the market downtrend today,” said Kenny Ng Lai-yin, a strategist at Everbright Securities.

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