Asian markets edged lower in the morning session, dragged by a downturn in tech stocks in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index after Chinese tech giant Tencent offloaded its stake in shopping platform Meituan.
As of 10:28 in BKK time, Nikkei dipped 0.40%, SSEC dropped 0.82%, Hang Seng Index plunged 2.75%, Kospi fell 1.07% while the ASX200 rose 0.09%.
Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 5.23% as Tencent fell 3.40% and Meituan slipped 5.79%.
Tencent said that it will return capital to shareholders through a special dividend distribution of its $20.3 billion stake. The tranche of shares is roughly 90.9% of its stake in Tencent and 15.5% of total shares Meituan issued as of October 31.
Meituan said that it would maintain its mutually beneficial business relationship with Tencent even after this divestment.
Reuters reported in August that the divestment plan came after a crackdown of Chinese regulatory on its tech sector.
