Alibaba shares drop below HK$100, hitting lowest since April 2025

Alibaba ↘2.15% shares fell more than 3% in Hong Kong on Monday, dropping below HK$100 for the first time since April 2025.sina
The decline follows the Pentagon’s June 8 addition of Alibaba to its Chinese military-linked company list and a Beijing regulatory rebuke over misleading shopping festival ads.cbsnews
Alibaba’s market cap fell below HK$2 trillion, with the Hang Seng Tech Index also dropping sharply amid a broader Asian selloff.futunn

Alibaba Shares Drop Below HK$100 Amid Pentagon Blacklist and Regulatory Pressure

Alibaba shares fell below HK$100 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday, hitting their lowest level since April 2025 as the Chinese e-commerce giant contends with a dual assault from Washington and Beijing.sina

The stock slid more than 3% to an intraday low of HK$100.60, breaching a psychologically important threshold and marking a new 52-week low. The decline extends a punishing stretch that has seen Alibaba underperform China’s broader tech sector, with the Hang Seng Tech Index also falling more than 3% on the day amid a wider selloff triggered by sharp corrections in Japanese and South Korean equity markets.futunn

Pentagon Designation Rattles Investors

The slide accelerated after the Pentagon on June 8 added Alibaba, along with Baidu and BYD, to its “1260H list” of Chinese companies it says support Beijing’s military or defense-industrial sector. The updated list, which now includes 188 Chinese entities, bars the Defense Department from entering into contracts with the named firms starting June 30, with a broader third-party procurement ban set to take effect in 2027.cnbc

Alibaba rejected the designation. “Alibaba is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy,” a company spokesperson said, adding it would “take all available legal action against attempts to misrepresent our company”.cbsnews

Beijing Adds Domestic Pressure

Days later, Beijing’s State Administration for Market Regulation summoned Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall platforms alongside JD.com, Pinduoduo, ByteDance’s Douyin, and Xiaohongshu over what officials called false advertising during the annual “618” midyear shopping festival. The regulator said the platforms could not provide documentation proving that their heavily promoted “10 billion yuan subsidy” campaigns actually invested that amount.bloomberg

The reprimand sent Alibaba shares tumbling as much as 6.5% on June 11, their largest single-day drop in nearly three months.bloomberg

Caught Between Two Fires

The twin pressures leave Alibaba squeezed between geopolitical hostility abroad and tightening regulatory scrutiny at home. Alibaba’s market capitalization has now fallen below HK$2 trillion, and the stock has declined more than 23% year-to-date on its U.S.-listed shares. Analysts note the company-specific headwinds have caused it to lag peers on the Hang Seng Tech Index by a wide margin over the past month.futunn