Nio and Alibaba shares sink, weighed down by Country Garden's financial woes and downbeat China data

By Tomi Kilgore

Disappointing data on new bank loans issued in China add to investor concerns as MSCI China ETF drops

The U.S.-listed shares of China-based companies suffered a broad beating Friday as property developer Country Garden Holdings Co.'s financial troubles cast a pall on the group.

The Invesco Golden Dragon China exchange-traded fund PGJ, which tracks U.S.-exchange listed companies headquartered in China, dropped 4.2% in morning trading, with 65 of 73 components losing ground. In comparison, the S&P 500 SPX slipped 0.3%.

Also hurting investor sentiment toward the group was that new loans issued in July by banks in China tumbled to 345.9 billion yuan (equivalent to $47.93 billion) from 3.05 trillion yuan in June, compared with expectations of a decline to 800 billion yuan, as Dow Jones Newswires reported, an indication of weak credit demand.

That follows other data out of China warning of an economic downturn, including the first drop in consumer prices in two years a larger-than-expected drop in both exports and imports.

Also read:'Alarming' China data upsets global stock markets

Among the most-active American depositary shares (ADS) of China-based companies, Nio Inc.'s (NIO) dropped 4.3%. The electric-vehicle maker's stock has shed 14.4% amid a four-day losing streak, and has tumbled 18% since it closed at a 10-month high on Aug. 3.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s (9988.HK) stock slumped 4%. That followed a 4.6% surge on Thursday, after the e-commerce giant reported fiscal first-quarter results that rose above expectations.

The U.S.-listed shares of Country Garden plunged 14.8%, after the embattled property developer warned of a potential loss of billions of dollars in the first half of the year following a credit downgrade on the back of missed bond payments.

Elsewhere in the U.S., shares of EV maker XPeng Inc. (XPEV) shed 4.6%, while video- streaming platform Bilibili Inc.'s (BILI) stock slid 5.7%, e-commerce company JD.com Inc.'s (JD) gave up 5.9%, mobile-marketplace company PDD Holdings Inc.'s (PDD) dropped 4.3%, EV maker Li Auto Inc.'s (LI) lost 5.8% and real-estate services platform KE Holdings Inc.'s (BEKE) declined 2.9%.

The Golden Dragon ETF tacked on 7% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 gained 7.9%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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08-11-23 1133ET

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