China, Hong Kong stocks slip as Alibaba slides on surprise share sale

China and Hong Kong shares weakened on Monday as a surprise share placement by tech major Alibaba 9988.HK rekindled concerns about AI spending and weighed on the tech sector.

• The Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC slipped 0.6% to 3,882.01 points while the blue-chip CSI 300 Index .CSI300 fell 1.2%, with both benchmarks ending at their lowest levels in three weeks.
• Tech sectors led the decline, with the start-up board ChiNext Composite Index .CNT down 3.2% and Shanghai's tech-focused STAR50 Index .STAR50 down 3.1%.
• Among other major losers, the CSI AI Index .CSI930713 fell 4.4% and the CSI Semiconductor Index .CSI931865 lost 1.7%.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index .HSI lost 1.9%, and the Hang Seng Tech Index .HSTECH dropped 3.6%. The AI sector index .HSAIT tumbled more than 5%.

Shares of market heavyweight Alibaba 9988.HK sank as much as 10.5% to a one-month low after it announced a HK$80 billion ($10.2 billion) share placement at an 8.4% discount to its Friday close, in the city's largest-ever primary follow-on offering to fund its AI-related development.

"This placement is pretty surprising to the market, in terms of both its size and the discount," said Jason Chan, strategist at Bank of East Asia.

There will be some dilution pressure on the stock, and markets will again question the amount of returns that the fierce AI competition can generate, he added.

Around the region, share markets were hesitant and oil prices eased as investors awaited details of threatened U.S. sanctions on Iran.