The New York Stock Exchange said it will no longer delist China’s three biggest state-owned telecommunications companies, backtracking on a plan that had threatened to escalate tensions between the world’s largest economies.
NYSE’s U-turn came with scant explanation just four days after the exchange said it would remove the shares to comply with a U.S. executive order barring investments in businesses owned or controlled by the Chinese military. Citing "consultation with relevant regulatory authorities” for the reversal in a brief statement late Monday, NYSE declined to elaborate further.
The about-face, described as "bizarre” by a Jefferies Financial Group Inc. analyst, whipsawed investors who on Monday had sold shares of the telecom companies and raced to bet on which Chinese businesses might be delisted next. China Mobile Ltd., China Telecom Corp. and China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd. all rallied more than 7% in Hong Kong trading Tuesday. Cnooc Ltd., a state-owned oil producer also on the Pentagon’s list of companies with Chinese military links, recouped some of Monday’s losses as well.