By Kanishka Singh and Bhargav Acharya
(Reuters) - S&P Dow Jones Indices said on Wednesday it will remove the American Depositary Receipts of three Chinese telecom companies, China Mobile (NYSE:CHL) Ltd, China Telecom (NYSE:CHA) Corporation Ltd and China Unicom (NYSE:CHU) (Hong Kong) Ltd, from its benchmarks.
"S&P DJI's announcement to move forward with removing the above-referenced ADRs from its indices is due to the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE's) latest confirmation that the ADRs will be delisted," it said in an emailed statement.
The NYSE said on Wednesday it will delist the three Chinese companies effective Jan. 11, confirming its latest reversal on the matter a day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told the NYSE chief he disagreed with an earlier decision to reverse the delistings.
The flip-flopping highlights the confusion over which firms were included in an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in November barring U.S. persons from investing in publicly traded companies Washington deems to be tied to the Chinese military.
Investors had sold positions in the securities after the NYSE first announced plans last week to delist China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. But the shares rose after NYSE said it would not do so and tumbled again after the latest about-face.
Less than 24 hours before its latest announcement, S&P Dow Jones Indices too had said it would not remove the ADRs of the firms, in line with NYSE's decision at the time.
Hong Kong shares of China Unicom led losses among the three China telecom stocks to be delisted by NYSE at the start of trading in Asia, down as much as 9.4%.
China Mobile shares were down as much as 6.8%, and China Telecom Corp shares dropped 5.8%.