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Over 100 companies fell by the 10 per cent daily limit as China tech stocks rocked by news US urging allies to blacklist Huawei

  • Shenzhen Composite falls 3.3 per cent; Shanghai Composite drops 2.5 per cent; Hang Seng Index down 0.g per cent

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An investor looks on as prices fall at a stock brokerage house in Beijing. Photo: Simon Song

More than 100 Chinese companies dropped by the maximum 10 per cent daily limit on Friday, as the country’s technology stocks were rocked by news that the US government is trying to persuade allies around the world to stop using telecommunications equipment from Chinese tech giant Huawei.

On the tech-heavy Shenzhen exchange, the Component Index and the Composite Index slid 3.3 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively, to close at 7,636.70 and 1,335.15. The start-up board index, the ChiNext, lost 3.3 per cent to 1,308.74.

On the Shanghai exchange, where state-owned firms dominate, the country’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.5 per cent to end at 2,579.48, marking the steepest percentage loss in a month.

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More than 4,000 stocks dropped on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets, 95 per cent of the total pool.

More than 100 stocks were halted from trading as they had fallen by the maximum-allowed 10 per cent. Many of them were in the hi-tech industry, such as Shanghai Shibei Hi-Tech, Changzhou NRB Corp, and Shandong Luxin High-Tech Industry.

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The sharp drop in tech stocks came after the Wall Street Journal reported that the US government has initiated an “extraordinary outreach campaign” to key allies around the world, trying to persuade them not to use telecommunications equipment from Huawei Technologies because of security concerns. Those countries include Germany, Italy and Japan, where Huawei equipment is already in wide use.
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