By Colum Murphy
SHANGHAI--BYD Co. (1211.HK), the Chinese electric-car maker
backed by U.S. investor Warren Buffett, saw its Hong Kong-traded
shares fall as much as 40% Thursday afternoon amid a worsening
outlook for the Chinese car market and lower oil prices.
The reason for the sharp drop wasn't immediately clear. A BYD
spokeswoman said the company's operations remained normal and that
it didn't see an explanation for the fall. "Everything's well," she
said. "I think it's market behavior. We'll pay attention to
it."
The company is the Hong Kong's most heavily-traded stock on
Thursday, with 5.84 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$753.1 million)
worth of shares traded as of 0754 GMT. The benchmark Hang Seng
Index was up 1.2%.
The spokeswoman said she didn't think the selloff had any links
to shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA), in response to a
question about whether the U.S. company, which is controlled by Mr.
Buffett, had anything to do with the sharp declines.
BYD's shares gained a bit back later Thursday, and were trading
late in the session at HK$24.90 Hong Kong dollars, down 29%.
In a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange Thursday
afternoon, BYD said it wasn't aware of reasons for the "unusual
decrease in the price and unusual increase in trading volume" of
the Hong Kong-traded stock.
Write to Colum Murphy at colum.murphy@wsj.com
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