Photographer: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg
Photographer: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg
The The New York Stock Exchange said it will no longer scrap China’s three largest state telecommunications companies, hinting at a plan that threatened to escalate tensions between the world’s largest economies.
The NYSE’s turnaround came just four days after the exchange said it would share the shares of China Mobile Ltd., China Telecom Corp. and China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd. to comply with a US executive order. NYSE quoted “consultation with relevant regulatory authorities” in a brief statement late Monday announcing the reversal.
Shares of China mobile, China Telecom and Unicom rebounded from the latest development, growing more than 6% in Hong Kong trade. Calls and emails to the companies were not answered immediately on Tuesday.
On New Year’s Eve, NYSE said it would scrap the companies to comply with a November order from US President Donald Trump to ban US investments in Chinese companies owned or controlled by the military. It was the first time that a US exchange had announced plans to remove a Chinese company as a direct result of mounting geopolitical tensions between the two superpowers.
The move to delist had raised concerns about direct sanctions against Chinese and US companies. The former have turned to the U.S. stock market for capital and international prestige for more than two decades, raising at least $ 144 billion from some of the world’s largest investors. Wall Street banks especially want tensions to intensify after being given unprecedented opportunities to operate in China last year.
(Updates with background)