The Market Math Behind Mark Cuban's Trump Tweet

(Bloomberg) -- The market value of Chinese companies listed outside China is sneaky large, something that American billionaire Mark Cuban hinted at in a tweet aimed at President Donald Trump. 

Chinese companies with their primary equity listings in Hong Kong and not traded on the mainland have a combined market value of more than $2 trillion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That includes market cap leader Tencent Holdings Ltd.

The biggest 130 companies with a primary listing in the U.S., such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Baidu Inc. and JD.com Inc., add about $900 billion. That’s about parity with Brazil’s equity market capitalization.

Alibaba, based in Hangzhou and listed in New York, was Cuban’s case in point, as he compared the online retailer and financial services group’s $250 billion value surge to America’s trade deficit with China.

Tencent is the world’s sixth largest company by market value, followed by Alibaba at number seven, with Hong Kong-listed China Mobile Ltd. checking at 33.

The nominal market capitalization of China-listed companies is about $7.7 trillion, or 8.3 percent of the global total, Bloomberg data show.

The total tab on Chinese equities across the world doesn’t include dozens of mostly smaller companies that trade in exchanges ranging from those in Taiwan and Singapore to Malaysia and Poland.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Lee Miller in Bangkok at lmiller@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Liu at jliu42@bloomberg.net.

©2017 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Lee Miller