Signs from China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom are seen during the China International Import Expo (CIIE) at the National Convention and Exhibition Center in Shanghai, China, November 5, 2018.
Aly Song | Reuters
After all, the New York Stock Exchange will remove three Chinese telecoms giants from the list, saying its second reversal in two days came after a new orientation from the Treasury Department.
The NYSE announced on Thursday that it will remove U.S.-traded shares in China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom from the Big Board to comply with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. The order sought to prevent American companies and individuals from investing in companies that the government claimed would help the Chinese military.
The exchange reversed the decision on Monday, causing much confusion. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the exchange that he disagreed with the reversal, a senior government official told CNBC’s Eamon Javers.
The NYSE said the most recent reversal was due to new guidance from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which said people in the U.S. could not engage in certain transactions with the three companies next Monday. Trading on the three titles will be suspended at 4 pm ET on Monday, the exchange said.
China Telecom’s shares fell 1.7% at the start of Wednesday’s trading session, while China Mobile fell about 1% and China Unicom gained about 0.8%.
Chinese officials criticized the original NYSE decision, with a spokesman for the China Securities and Exchange Commission saying on Monday that the executive order “entirely ignored the real situation of the relevant companies and the legitimate rights of global investors, and damaged strictly the rules and orders of the market. “
Trump issued the order in November as part of a series of moves against Chinese companies.
In August, the president started a legal fight over the social media site TikTok with a similar order addressed to its parent company, ByteDance, based in China, and Tencent. Several U.S. companies, including Oracle and Walmart, have engaged in discussions to obtain partial holdings in the video sharing application.
Trump signed a bill in December that would force the closure of Chinese shares that did not adhere to American auditing standards, and the government determined that the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board avoided investing in Chinese companies in May.
–With a report by Christine Wang, from CNBC.