Stock market movements on an electronic display in New York, U.S.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. liquidated $10.5 billion worth of stocks in block trades on Friday, part of an extraordinary spree of selling that erased $35 billion from the values of bellwether stocks ranging from Chinese technology giants to U.S. media conglomerates.
The Wall Street bank sold $6.6 billion worth of shares of Baidu Inc., Tencent Music Entertainment Group and Vipshop Holdings Ltd. before the market opened in the U.S, according to an email to clients seen by Bloomberg News.
That move was followed by the sale of $3.9 billion of shares in ViacomCBS Inc., Discovery Inc., Farfetch Ltd., iQiyi Inc. and GSX Techedu Inc., the email said.
More of the unregistered stock offerings were said to be managed by Morgan Stanley, according to people familiar with the matter, on behalf of one or more undisclosed shareholders. Some of the trades exceeded $1 billion in individual companies, calculations based on Bloomberg data show.
Maeve DuVally, a Goldman Sachs spokeswoman, declined to comment. A spokesperson for Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
Price Swings
The liquidation triggered price swings for every stock involved in the high-volume transactions, while rattling some of their industry counterparts. It also spurred speculation among some traders of forced selling by a fund being liquidated.
Several major investment banks with ties to Tiger Cub hedge fund Archegos Capital Management LLC liquidated holdings, contributing to the slump in share prices of ViacomCBS and Discovery, IPO Edgereported, citing people it didn’t identify.
In block trades, large volumes of securities are privately negotiated between parties, usually outside of open market.
Friday’s selloff dragged companies including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and NetEase Inc. lower. The peers later recovered after traders said word of the offerings lessened fears that a broader trade was unfolding throughout the sector.
That late rebound pushed up an index of companies engaged in internet-related businesses in China and the U.S., with the measure halting a three-day selloff while still notching a slide of about 6.5% for the week.
Chinese stocks have been under pressure after awarning from the Securities and Exchange Commission that it’s taking steps to force accounting firms to let U.S. regulators review the financial audits of overseas companies — the penalty for non-compliance being ejection from exchanges. In addition to that, Bloomberg News reported that China’s government has proposed forming a joint venture with local technology giants that would oversee the lucrative data they collect.
Read more: ViacomCBS, Discovery Plunge on New Downgrade, Block Trades