Chinese companies including Tencent take a hit of $75 billion after US acti

Hongkong/Washington: Chinese companies have taken a major hit following the sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump. It has been reported that leading Chinese companies from the information technology sector, including Tencent, have suffered losses of $75 billion. Tencent, one of the top 10 companies in the world, is believed to have taken a hit of nearly $40 billion, individually.

Thursday night, President Donald Trump announced sanctions against the Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat. President Trump issued two executive orders announcing that these two apps have been given a deadline of 45 days. The US sources indicated that both these apps would be banned after the deadline. Repercussions of President Trump’s decision were felt in the international stock markets, including China.

The Chinese foreign ministry criticised ‘The United States is acting targeting the non-US businesses through its agencies, under the pretext of national security. China will firmly oppose these dominant policies. This action taken by Trump is political persecution and oppression.’ China has also indicated action against some of the big US companies.

The repercussions of the US decision to jolt two leading Chinese companies were felt in the international stock markets. The Tencent stock crashed by 10% in the US and European stock markets. Tencent is said to have suffered losses to the tune of $35 to 40 billion, due to this drop. Other than Tencent, the Chinese companies Alibaba, JD Dot Com and other major companies in the Information Technology sector also were hit and the daily, ‘Financial Times’, claimed that the estimated losses are nearly $75 billion. The market capitalisation of Tencent is $656 billion and it is believed that this Chinese company has investments in nearly 500 companies around the world, including Tesla, Reddit, Spotify and Universal Music.