ONLINE food delivery group Meituan led a rout of Chinese technology company shares Friday, as authorities announced a series of regulatory moves to boost growth while keeping financial risks under control. Shares of Hong Kong-listed Meituan fell more than 14.86 percent, wiping out US$26 billion in the food delivery giant’s market value, after the government asked platforms to cut charges for restaurants to reduce business costs. Online food delivery platforms were also told to give preferential fees to restaurants in regions hit by the pandemic, according to a statement by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Friday. The move caused a broad selloff in tech shares, with the Hang Seng Tech Index closing 3.2 percent lower while the benchmark Hang Seng Index dropped 1.9 percent. The NDRC rules are aimed to promote a faster recovery from the pandemic in the services sector. Those rules were announced as the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission warned against using the metaverse as a tool for illegal fundraising, saying that some companies were engaging in illegal fundraising, fraud and virtual real estate speculation. Investors, entrepreneurs and established tech giants have in recent months piled into the trend of the metaverse, described as a virtual shared space that blurs the boundaries between the online and offline worlds. The regulatory moves come as China’s technology sector is still smarting from a year-long regulatory action, which has upended once-common industry practices and wiped millions of dollars off share prices. The delivery business and fees from restaurants are a main part of Meituan’s revenues, according to Stanley Chan, an analyst at Emperor Securities. That means the rules add uncertainty to the company’s financials. In contrast, property sector shares soared Friday after China’s finance minister pledged more fiscal support for the economy and an easing of home-purchase down payments in several Chinese cities aimed at reigniting demand. China Orient Asset Management, one of China’s four large “bad banks” set up to dispose of nonperforming loans from major domestic banks, also got approval to issue bonds to resolve risks in the property sector that have walloped developers’ bonds and shares. (SD-Agencies) | 