Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, also known as the BATs, are China's tech superstars. After these stocks had a solid run in 2017, market watchers expected them to challenge the market leadership on major U.S. tech names this year.
But so far, over $168 billion has collectively been wiped off the BATs' value thanks to a cocktail of factors from the U.S.-China trade war to concerns over valuations and a regulatory crackdown from Beijing.
Alibaba shares are down over 11 percent year-to-date, Tencent has plunged 22.4 percent, while Baidu is off more than 6 percent.
In comparison, the FANGs — Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet — have outperformed the BATs. Amazon is up over 64 percent year-to-date and Netflix has surged more than 91 percent. Alphabet is also higher. Facebook is the only FANG to have fallen this year, following concerns over its ability to police its platform, privacy worries and potential looming regulation.
Chinese tech stocks have been hammered in large part due to the global trade war that has hit sentiment toward companies from China.