China's Tencent sinks to 4-1/2-mth low after India blocks Krafton game

KRAFTON

29/07/2022 08:49

** Shares of internet gaming and social media giant Tencent
Holdings  0700.HK  drop 4.9% to HK$305, lowest since March 15
    ** Stock to mark its biggest daily pct decline since May 19,
if losses hold; most actively traded by turnover on the Hong
Kong bourse
    ** India blocked a popular battle-royale format game from
Krafton Inc  259960.KS , a South Korean company backed by
Tencent, using a law it has invoked since 2020 to ban Chinese
apps on national security concerns, a source said  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2Z921W
    ** Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) was removed from
Alphabet Inc's  GOOGL.O  Google Play Store and Apple Inc's
 AAPL.O  App Store as of Thursday evening in India
    ** BGMI had more than 100 million users in India 
    ** India blocked the online multiplayer battle game because
of concerns it was sharing data with China, a senior government
official told Reuters  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2ZA0FL
    ** A Krafton spokesperson said the developer was talking to
relevant authorities and companies to figure out the exact
situation regarding the suspension
    ** Shares of Krafton fall 4.5%
    ** The Hang Seng sub-index on information technology firms
 .HSCIIT  plunges 5.6%, and the Hang Seng Tech Index  .HSTECH 
slumps 5.4%
    ** The Hang Seng Composite Index  .HSCI  and the Hang Seng
Index  .HSI  fall 2.7% each
    ** As of last close, Tencent stock had dropped 27.7% this
year

 (Reporting by Donny Kwok)
 ((donny.kwok@thomsonreuters.com))