Alibaba in buyback hint as stock woes continue

Alibaba (9988) has hinted of potential share buybacks of up to US$11.7 billion after the stocks in the mainland and Hong Kong retreated yesterday in post-holiday trading on China's economic woes.

The e-commerce giant revealed in a statement that it repurchased a total of 897.9 million ordinary shares for US$9.5 billion (HK$74.1 billion) last year, including US$2.9 billion in the last quarter.

The remaining amount of Alibaba's share buyback program is, as authorized by its board, US$11.7 billion by year-end.

With the repurchase program effective through March 2025, Alibaba will provide updates on it after the end of each quarter.

The announcement came after its shares dropped 1.19 percent to HK$74.70 yesterday.

Separately, Alibaba's Taobao further offloaded Gogox (2246), trimming its stake to 8.89 percent. Its food delivery platform Ele.me established a new company in Shenzhen with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan (HK$10.96 billion).

Also, Tencent (0700) spent HK$1 billion to repurchase 3.38 million shares for a fifth consecutive day to stem the decline.

Its shares ended 1 percent higher at HK$296.60 apiece, after hitting a daily peak of HK$305 at one stage.

The weak market sentiment was to be blamed for the narrowed growth. Amid concerns about China's economic recovery, the Hang Seng Index lost 258 points, or 1.5 percent, to end at 16,788 on daily turnover of just HK$76.6 billion. And the mainland's CSI 300 fell 1.3 percent.

Electric vehicle makers dipped as well despite roaring December sales, with Li Auto (2015) and Nio (9866) dropping over 5 percent and 6 percent.

China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle (0708) slumped over 17 percent on the lapsed US$3.9 billion investment agreement with NWTN.

Macau's casino operators rose on a surge in gross gaming revenue, but the growth later shrank.

Sands China (1928) climbed 3.9 percent to HK$23.75 per share, one of the best-performing blue-chip members.

The onshore yuan also plummeted 400 basis points to 7.1354 to the US dollar.

However, Citibank (Hong Kong) still expects the HSI can rebound to 23,000.