- During the information of the alleged arrest of the owner of Alibaba, the titles plummeted by 9.4%.
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| An employee walks past the Alibaba logo at its headquarters in Hangzhou, China. / EFE |
The shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba suffered a significant drop in the first minutes of the session in Hong Kong due to the confusion over the alleged arrest of its founder, Jack Ma, already denied by the official press of the Asian country.
The event took place around 09:45 local time, just 15 minutes after the start of the trading day, Alibaba shares plummeted by 9.4%.
Three-quarters of an hour earlier, state television CCTV had announced "coercive actions" in the eastern city of Hangzhou, the headquarters of Alibaba, against a man named Ma.
Failed IPO
This man was accused of "colluding with hostile anti-Chinese forces abroad" and engaging in "activities that endanger national security such as inciting secession."
The CCTV announcement did not specify the first name of the person under investigation. A fact that sparked panic among investors for fear that it was Jack Ma.
This fear came from Ma's relationship with national authorities, which soured at the end of 2020 with the frustrated IPO of his fintech company Ant Group.
Appreciated shares
After that, the official press was quick to deny the rumors: the Global Times newspaper reported that the detainee's name consists of three Chinese characters, while that of Jack Ma (Ma Yun) only has two.
According to that newspaper, the investigated works as director of research and development in a computer company. After the denial, the price of Alibaba's shares in Hong Kong recovered, limiting its losses to 1.57% when reaching the mid-session break.
The spirits of Chinese technology investors are at a sensitive moment, the information that pointed to the possible end of the harsh regulation campaign of the sector by the Chinese Government caused Alibaba shares to revalue by 15.69%.
Largest antitrust fine
Despite this, the group's shares in Hong Kong continue to trade at practically half the price at which they debuted on that floor at the end of 2019.
Alibaba has been marking this downward trend since the aforementioned clashes between Ma and the authorities on account of Ant Group's IPO at the end of 2020.
The company has been one of the most affected by the regulatory campaign, in the framework of which Beijing imposed, in April 2021, the largest antitrust fine in the history of China, equivalent to about 2,800 million dollars.