Didi surges 12% and leads other Chinese stocks higher as investors eye a bottom for the recent free-fall

• Didi Global surged as much as 12% on Wednesday, leading a broad rebound of US-listed Chinese stocks as some investors see a bottom for the recent free-fall.
• The Invesco Golden Dragon China ETF, which tracks a range of US-listed Chinese equities, rose 4%. The broader Shanghai Composite Index was up just around 1%.
• The uptick comes as some analysts and investors are eyeing a bottom to the steep decline in Chinese equities.
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Didi Global finished Wednesday 12% higher, leading a broad rebound of US-listed Chinese stocks as some investors see a bottom for the recent free-fall.

Other prominent US-listed Chinese companies were lifted on Wednesday as investors mulled the implications of the government regulatory crackdown. Baidu finished the day up 6%, Tencent 5%, Alibaba 4%, and JD.com 3%. The Invesco Golden Dragon China ETF, which tracks a range of US-listed Chinese equities, rose 3%.

The broader Shanghai Composite Index was climbed roughly 1%.

The slight reprieve for Didi – and for other US-listed Chinese giants – still pales in comparison to this year’s tumble amid an escalating regulatory campaign. Didi is around 34% below its June 30 IPO price, while the Golden Dragon China ETF has given up more than 20% over the same period.

Even still, the uptick comes as some analysts and investors are eyeing a bottom to the steep decline in Chinese equities.

“We may have seen the near-term bottom of the market, after months of selloffs,” Castor Pang, head of research at Core Pacific Yamaichi, told Bloomberg recently. “Although investors are still very sensitive about negative regulations, shares managed to bounce back recently despite negative news from time to time.”

In a note out on Wednesday, JPMorgan analysts pointed out that some of the harshest selling signals had let up.

“It appears that after briefly contributing to the sell-off in Chinese equities in late July both domestic and foreign institutional investors … have exhibited buy-the-dip behavior,” the analysts wrote. “Retail investors have also behaved in a somewhat contrarian manner.”

But the JPMorgan team added that there remain significant headwinds in the medium term for Chinese stocks.