Late Wednesday a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) administrative trial judge ruled that the Big Four U.S. accounting firms with joint ventures in China should be barred from working for any U.S.-listed Chinese company for six months. That probably caused more selling of the stocks on Thursday and remained a factor Friday.
Friday’s big loser shortly after the opening bell appears to be Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. (NYSE: QIHU), down about 6.4% to $87.30, in a 52-week range of $27.76 to $96.74. At least part of the drop is due to an announcement that Alibaba has denied rumors that it will be taking a stake in the company. Daily average share volume was about 2.9 million and nearly 600,000 shares traded in the first 20 minutes or so of the session.
Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), the Google of China, has dropped nearly $10 in the past two days. Shares were trading at $165.61 early Friday, and the 52-week range is $82.98 to $185.50. Early volume was already about one-third of the daily average of 3.7 million shares.
E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. (NYSE: DANG), a smaller version of Amazon, is down 11% for the past two days. The 52-week range is $3.70 to $12.19. Trading was not particularly heavy Friday morning, but the shares were down another 3.2% at $9.57 after closing at $9.89 on Thursday.
SINA Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA) closed the past two days down 6% at $72.51 on Thursday. The stock traded as high as $89 just two weeks ago, and the 52-week range is $45.54 to $92.83. Early volume was fairly heavy, with about one-sixth of the daily average of nearly 3 million shares already changing hands.
500.com Ltd. (NYSE: WBAI) is the Chinese lotto play. Trading Friday morning at $37.68, the stock was down from $43.81 just two days earlier. The post-IPO range is $18.14 to $44.80. Volume was roughly one-third of the daily average of around 700,000 shares.
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