Alibaba, JD.com, others pop as China eases travel restrictions, demolishes zero-COVID
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Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), JD.com (NASDAQ:JD), Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) and several other Chinese tech stocks rose in premarket trading on Tuesday as the country eased up on restrictions for international travelers and continued to remove the majority of its zero-COVID policies that have plagued the country's economy.
On Monday, the National Health Commission said it would no longer require inbound travelers to head into quarantine, starting January 8. Instead, travelers entering China will have to show a negative PCR test 48 hours before entering the country.
COVID-19 was also downgraded to a Category B virus, down from a Category A level, the commission added, as it has become less virulent and likely to become a common respiratory virus.
China also said it would undertake such measures as increased vaccinations for its elderly citizens and continue to suggest additional doses for those considered to be high-risk.
It was reported last week that the world's most populous country was likely to cut its quarantine requirements for overseas travelers.
To minimize the impacts on the world's second-largest economy, some Chinese cities have said people could return to work even if they had mild symptoms.
"Most Chinese cities could recover from the first wave of the latest COVID-19 outbreak by January... this would be faster than people have expected," noted Chaoping Zhu, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
Baidu (BIDU) rose 1.5%, while JD.com (JD) added 2%. Baidu (BIDU) rose 1.3% and other Chinese tech stocks, such as Bilibili (BILI), Kingsoft Cloud Holdings (KC) and NetEase (NTES) also saw gains.
The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB) was also higher in premarket trading, gaining more than 2.5%.
Many Chinese companies have seen their share prices rise lately as Beijing has relaxed many of its COVID-19 restrictions.
Seeking Alpha's Yoel Minkoff contributed to this story.