BEIJING, October 24  (TMTPOST)— The rumor about China Mobile’s equity investment failed to reverse or narrow the trend of Tencent’s selloff Monday. Hong Kong-listed shares of Tencent Holdings Ltd. slumped as much as 11.8% after settling 11.4% lower at HK$ 206.2, the lowest close since February, 2017. Its market value has been wiped out around 73% since shares hit record high at HK$758.9 in February, 2021.

Source: Visual China

The news about stake acquisition by China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile network operator by subscribers, is untrue, Tencent told Chinese digital media outlet The Paper later that day.

Stocks of Chinese firms, either at home or abroad, suffered brutal selloff Monday. The Hang Seng index slid 6.4% to the level last seen during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index, which tracks China-exposed firms listed in the United States, finished 14.4%, the biggest daily decline since its debut in 2014, and erased about US$93 billion in market value. The American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Alibaba Group, the most valuable Chinese firm listed in U.S., tumbled 12.5%, and shares of its e-commerce peers Pinduoduo and JD.com plunged 24.6% and 13% respectively. Other Chinese tech giants also outperformed the market. Three prominent Tesla’s Chinese rivals NIO, Li Auto and Xpeng each plummeted more than 10%.

Tencent and other Chinese tech firms saw significant slowdown this year, hit by various headwinds such as the pandemic lockdowns and macroeconomic downturn. In the second quarter of the year, Tencent missed analysts’ estimates in both the top line and bottom line. Its revenue fell 3.2% year-over-year (YoY), the first ever yearly decline for the Chinese tech giant, while the net income dropped 56% YoY to RMB18.6 billion, much weaker than market projection of RMB25.03 billion.

In an earnings call in August, Tencent management expected the company can return to positive growth in revenue in the coming quarters and underlined its shares and portfolios are highly undervalued. They said Tencent would consider cutting troubled investments and more forms of reward to make shareholders benefited from investment decisions.