- Chinese tech stocks slid in Hong Kong Friday after Uber rival Didi said it will delist its New York shares.
- Alibaba and Tencent lost ground after the ride-hailing giant bowed to pressure from China to pull its US offering.
- It's the latest development in a tussle between the US and China over the country's big techs pursuing a listing.
Chinese tech stocks in Hong Kong slid Friday after ride-hailing giant Didi Global said it will delist its shares in the US, bowing to pressure from Beijing authorities.
The app provider plans to pull its offering from the New York Stock Exchange and pursue a listing in Hong Kong, it said in a statement Friday.
Didi has come under months of intense pressure from Chinese regulators, which began a crackdown in the days following the company's blockbuster IPO in New York in June.
The news weighed on Chinese technology stocks in Hong Kong. Shares of e-commerce giant Alibaba lost 2.61% Friday. Meanwhile, Tencent closed 2.3% lower, and shopping platform provider Meituan shed 2.66%.
The Hang Seng Tech index dropped 1.3%, while the broader Hang Seng benchmark closed broadly flat.
Beijing is seen as unhappy about the number of domestic companies that have listed in the US, and the move turns up the heat in the tussle between the two countries over airing of information in such listings.
The US market regulator on Thursday laid out a tough new rule that puts it closer to kicking Chinese companies from the US stock market if they don't open their books to its inspections.
The Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index, which tracks US-listed Chinese stocks, has fallen almost 37% this year so far as the two sides battle it out, compared with a 22% gain in the S&P 500 index of top US blue chips.
Didi's decision comes less than six months after its New York IPO — one of the biggest in the past 10 years — when its shares closed at $14.14 on their first day of trading. The stock closed at $7.80 on Thursday.
The app provider went ahead with its US listing, despite a request from China's internet regulator to put the offering on hold while it looked into its handling of customers' personal data.
The Cyberspace Administration of China has piled on the pressure since then, and in November the watchdog asked Didi to delist in the US because of concerns about data leakage, according to Reuters.