Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA,
rose 7.3% to a more than 6-week high in the premarket trade on Wednesday, putting them on track for a fifth straight gain after co-founder Jack Ma made his first public appearance in nearly three months. The concentration of the shares of the Internet giant based in China puts them on the way to opening at the highest price seen during the regular sessions since December 4th. A spokesman for the Jack Ma Foundation confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that Ma participated in the network ceremony of the annual Rural Teacher Initiative event on January 20th. Ma has not been seen in public since Oct. 24, when Ma spoke at a financial forum and criticized regulators for stifling financial and technological innovation, the WSJ reported. This caused regulators to stop trading on Ant Group Co., which Ma controls. Since Ma’s last public appearance on Tuesday, Alibaba’s shares had fallen 18.8%, while the iCHhares MSCI China MCHI ETF
rose 13.0% and the S&P 500 SPX,
advanced 9.6%.