Tencent Buys Own Stock for First Time in Four Years as Shares Sag

Tencent Holding Ltd. has launched its first share buyback in four years, as the gaming giant attempts to halt a skid that has seen its shares tumble this year.

Tencent shares have lost about a third of their value since a mid-January peak, wiping out around $120 billion in market value and ending a streak that saw them roughly double in 2017 on a wave of bullishness over the Chinese internet. They have come under particular pressure since March, after China stopped approving new game titles, hitting the company’s largest revenue source. That caused the company to report its first quarterly profit decline in more than a decade in its second-quarter results.