China’s Tencent hits $200bn market cap

Tencent’s shares have rocketed 52% from the beginning of this year, bringing its valuation close to those of US peer Facebook’s $230bn and Chinese arch rival Alibaba’s $210bn.

Reuters/BeijingChina’s Tencent Holdings for the first time hit a market cap of more than $200bn yesterday, making it more valuable than US tech firms like Amazon.com Inc, IBM Corp and Oracle Corp. The country’s biggest social networking and online entertainment firm rose 5.38% to close at HK$170.50 ($22) in trading in Hong Kong, giving it a market valuation of $206bn. This is higher than Oracle’s $190bn, Amazon’s $178bn and IBM’s $161bn. Tencent’s shares have rocketed 52% from the beginning of this year, bringing its valuation close to those of US peer Facebook Inc’s $230bn and Chinese arch rival Alibaba Group Holding’s $210bn. The surge in the Shenzhen-based company’s share price comes as Hong Kong stocks hit fresh seven-year highs yesterday. China recently allowed mutual funds to buy stocks on the Hang Seng Index under the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme, fuelling the jump in already-rising Tencent shares. More money is expected to pour in as investors hunt for bargains. New York-listed Alibaba, the world’s largest e-commerce firm, has seen its shares slide 19% year-to-date. This slump owes itself to investor excitement wearing off after the firm’s record-setting $25bn IPO last September, and a lacklustre set of third-quarter earnings results. Facebook is up 5% since the beginning of 2015.