Photographer: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg
Photographer: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg
He The New York Stock Exchange said it will stop withdrawing China’s three largest state-owned telecommunications companies, backtracking on a plan that had threatened to raise tensions between the world’s largest economies.
The NYSE’s changeover came just four days after the exchange said it would remove shares of China Mobile Ltd., China Telecom Corp. and China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd. to comply with a U.S. executive order. NYSE cited the “consultation with relevant regulatory authorities” in a brief statement Monday afternoon announcing the reversal.
Actions of China Mobile, China Telecom i Unicom concentrated on the latest development, increasing more than 6% in Hong Kong trade. Business calls and emails did not return immediately on Tuesday.
On New Year’s Eve, the NYSE said it would withdraw companies to comply with a November order from U.S. President Donald Trump banning U.S. investments in Chinese-owned or military-controlled companies. It was the first time a U.S. stock exchange had announced plans to eliminate a Chinese company as a direct result of growing geopolitical tensions between the two superpowers.
The decision to withdraw the shares had raised concerns about payment sanctions for Chinese and American companies. The former have resorted to the U.S. stock market to gain international capital and prestige for more than two decades, raising at least $ 144 billion from some of the world’s largest investors. Wall Street banks are particularly interested in seeing tensions subside after gaining unprecedented reach to operate in China last year.
(Background updates)