Bottom line: Measures like LeTV’s share suspension and TCL’s share buyback will have minimal impact on their stock ultimate declines during the ongoing sell-off, and in the former case will only add to LeTV’s image as a market manipulator.
It’s only Thursday, but already I’m looking forward to the weekend so I can take a break from writing daily about the pounding Chinese Internet and tech stocks are taking both at home and abroad. The number of Internet stocks getting pounded in China has just lost a major member, with word that online video superstar LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) has joined a growing list of domestically traded companies that have been granted permission to suspend trading of their shares.
At the same time, a few of the other companies I write about are trying different tactics to support their shares, with electronics giant TCL (Shenzhen: 000100) expanding a share buyback program in one such move. Such buybacks usually total millions or perhaps tens of millions of dollars, and thus don’t seem very effective at a time when billions or even trillions of dollars worth of shares are being traded each day. But companies like TCL and LeTV are doing anything they can to try and support their tumbling stocks. Read Full Post…