Tycoons lose more than $9bn in market rout on fear that the crackdown on wealth and private businesses will continue
General Secretary and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Picture: GETTY IMAGES/KEVIN FRAYER
Tencent Holdings’s Pony Ma and China’s richest individual, Zhong Shanshan, each lost more than $2bn on Monday as share prices of their companies tumbled after the Communist Party’s leadership reshuffle, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index. Alibaba Group Holdings Jack Ma, Baidu’s Robin Li and JD.com’s Richard Liu are not included as their group’s primary listings are in the US, though the stocks are falling in premarket trading.
“The slump today reflects the fragile investor sentiment,” said Kenny Wen, head of investment strategy at KGI Asia in Hong Kong. “People are just trying to hold on and look for more implications for the Chinese economy after the reshuffle.”