Asian markets: Alibaba.com dives in Hong Kong trading

Trading in Hong Kong Tuesday was hampered by a severe tropical storm that delayed the opening of the stock market until 2:30 p.m. By the end of the shortened session, which lasted only an hour and a half, the Hang Seng had slipped 66 points to close at 20,866 -- a loss of .3 percent.

Active stocks included Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com, China's largest e-commerce web site, which suffered its biggest loss since mid-March, falling 11 percent to close at HK$18.80. The drop in share price was a reaction to Yahoo! Inc.'s sale of 57.5 million shares (1 percent) of the company for HK$1.14 billion ($147 million). According to Reuters, Yahoo! sold the shares at a 6.4 percent discount to the stock's Monday closing price, driving down the overall share price. Even after the sale, Yahoo! remains the biggest shareholder in parent Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. with a 40 percent stake in the company.