'Metaverse' stocks tumble on media report

Chinese shares seen with links to "Metaverse," a virtual shared space based on virtual reality technologies, slumped on Thursday after their recent surge raised regulatory eyebrows and prompted state media to warn against investing in them.

Investment is not a virtual game and investors buying Chinese stocks hoping to profit from Metaverse will likely end up in tears, Securities Times warned in a commentary on Thursday.

If people "blindly invest in such grand and illusionary concept as Metaverse, they will be burnt in the end," it said.

The commentary came a day after the Shenzhen Stock Exchange wrote to Zhejiang Jinke Culture Industry Co, urging the mobile Internet firm to substantiate its claim that it has the customer base to develop Metaverse products.

The bourse also asked if the company, whose share prices surged roughly 35 percent this week, played a part in boosting its own stocks with the hot concept. Most Metaverse-related stocks tumbled early on Thursday.

Wondershare Technology and Wahlap Technology both slumped over 10 percent, while Goertek lost over 8 percent.

AVIT Ltd tumbled 13 percent, while Perfect World shed 5 percent.

China's top securities regulator, Yi Huiman, said on Monday that exchanges should have a better understanding of investor behaviors in the Internet age.

Shenzhen Zhongqingbao Interaction Network, whose shares surged over 60 percent this week after the company posted an article about Metaverse, said in an exchange filing that it is still in initial stages to explore the business, and cautioned investors against risks.