Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) Down Week Explained

What spurred Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)’s losing streak for five consecutive trading days? According to Bloomberg’s Stephen Engle, it’s not just one particular reason.

In a talk with Angie Lau on First Up, one reason Engle gave as to why Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) has been falling in the stock market as of late is the end of the holiday season.

“We’ve moved past the holiday season. […] November 11th in China is Singles day – 11/11 – so that’s a big online shopping date. And then there’s the Christmas buying season. Yes, Christmas is popular the world around and Alibaba has global platforms [and] there’s lots of traffic going there. We’re into kind of the lull in January,” he said.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), since closing at about $105 on January 8, has moved to a close of $96.31 yesterday. In November 10, it hit a high of $119.15 per share.

“[There are] a number of different things on the horizon with Alibaba. Of course, their first quarterly report is due in February – the first quarterly report since that big IPO in September is in February. We also have this lockout period of shares ending in March so the shares that were locked up become tradable,” Engle added.

He said that because of the lockout period ending, there is some concern present for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA).

The stock is down below $100, he noted, and as a result, the company’s CEO, Jack Ma, has also lost about $500 million in his net worth this year. Still, Ma is the biggest billionaire winner of 2014 after he saw his fortune soar from about $3.5 billion to about $28.7 billion in 2014. According to Bloomberg, he’s still worth about $27.8 billion.

Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global owned about 11.39 million Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) shares by the end of September.