NYSE scraps plan to delist China Telcos in ‘bizarre’ U-turn

The New York Stock Exchange said it will no longer delist China’s three biggest state-owned telecommunications companies, backtracking on a plan that had threatened to escalate tensions between the world’s largest economies.

NYSE’s U-turn came with scant explanation just four days after the exchange said it would remove the shares to comply with a U.S. executive order barring investments in businesses owned or controlled by the Chinese military. Citing “consultation with relevant regulatory authorities” for the reversal in a brief statement late Monday, NYSE declined to elaborate further.

“This is the most bizarre series of events we have witnessed in the U.S. during this analyst’s career,” said Edison Lee, the head of telecom research at Jefferies in Hong Kong.