Alibaba shares fall

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba reported 1.18 billion active customers and increased its share buyback programme to a record $15 billion. However, the negative trends seen by investors outweighed and Alibaba shares fell.

Alibaba (BABA) shares, down 14% since the start of 2021 and having lost 24.4% in the past six months, fell 3.3% in early trading on Tuesday (at the time of writing) after the company released its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2022, which ended June 30.

Alibaba shares hit a 16-month low last week.

The sharp rise in Alibaba shares last year (when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Chinese population to shop online) was followed by a fall amid concerns of increased regulatory pressure from the Chinese government. In November last year, the regulator banned the IPO of financial giant Ant Group, 33% owned by Alibaba. Further sharp declines in the stock followed amid an investigation by China's antitrust authorities into Alibaba and the imposition of a $2.75bn fine, albeit record-breaking.

Alibaba's slowdown in online sales echoes what US online retail leader Amazon (AMZN) recently reported. Amazon's e-sales pace for the same quarter slowed after a "boom" in growth in previous quarters as shoppers headed to offline shops and entertainment venues. Alibaba's report

For the first quarter of fiscal 2022, Alibaba reported an increase in profit compared with a loss last month due to the fine. Alibaba's earnings per share rose to $2.57, up $0.33 from analysts' estimate of $2.24. Revenue rose 46% to $31.87 billion.

Revenues from Alibaba's core e-sales business rose about 35% to ¥180.24 billion for the quarter.

Alibaba's cloud revenue rose 29%, slowing growth for the second consecutive quarter after a major customer departed.

Ant Group's first-quarter profit fell to $2.1 billion, with Alibaba gaining $696 million from its 33% stake in Ant Group, down 37% from the previous three months.

Nevertheless, the positives of Alibaba's report on Tuesday were the announcement of an increase in its share buyback programme from $10bn to a record $15bn.

Alibaba's ecosystem of online platforms also reached a record 1.18 billion global active consumers a year.