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Stock Rout Wipes $141 Billion Off China's Three Tech Kings

Stock Rout Wipes $141 Billion Off China's Three Tech Kings

(Bloomberg) -- China’s walled off tech universe isn’t offering its biggest companies much protection from the global equity rout.

The so-called BAT block of Baidu Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. have seen their combined market value fall by $141 billion from this year’s highs as a selloff in U.S. peers spreads across the globe.

The companies were major beneficiaries of the tech equity surge that marked 2017, and are now feeling the consequences as it unravels. Tencent’s warning on margin pressure as well as a surprise sale of stock by its biggest shareholder only added to investor jitters. Tencent is poised to cap its first back-to-back monthly loss since 2016 in Hong Kong.

Stock Rout Wipes $141 Billion Off China's Three Tech Kings

Tech stocks in the U.S. have been hurt by a barrage of bad news, from Facebook Inc.’s privacy scandal to fatal crashes at Uber Technologies Inc. and Tesla Inc. The latest star to fall was Amazon.com Inc., after Axios reported that U.S. President Donald Trump is contemplating ways to “go after” the e-commerce giant. The Nasdaq 100 Index has tumbled more than 9 percent from its March record amid surging volatility.

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Frost in Hong Kong at rfrost4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah McDonald at smcdonald23@bloomberg.net, Philip Glamann

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.