S&P Dow Jones Indices said on Thursday that it would remove some Chinese companies from indexes used to track market performance following a U.S. government ban on Americans investing in their stocks and bonds.
The Chinese government opposed the move as politically motivated. The companies affected include surveillance technology provider Hikvision, processor chip manufacturing SMIC among others. The announcement follows President Donald Trump’s Nov. 13 order barring Americans from buying stocks or bonds issued by companies deemed to be linked to China’s military.
The move by S&P DJI Indices will require investment funds that track stock market movements to sell shares in those Chinese companies. Last week, index provider FTSE Russell said it will delete shares of Hikvision and seven other Chinese companies from its FTSE Global Equity Index Series and other products and that it had acted on feedback from subscribers and other stakeholders.