China’s Evergrande halts trading

Hong Kong: Beleaguered property giant China Evergrande suspended trading of its shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday, according to notices posted by the bourse, as the debt-ridden company grapples with severe financial difficulties.

Trading in its two other units -- the firm´s property services and electric vehicle groups -- also stopped at 9:00 am local time, according to the notices.

The three entities had a combined market value of 16.7 billion HK dollars ($2.1 billion) on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported. Evergrande only just resumed trading a month ago, after the company was suspended for 17 months for not publishing its financial results. The halt in trading comes a day after a Bloomberg report that Evergrande´s billionaire boss Xu Jiayin was being held by police under "residential surveillance".