(Yicai Global) Sept. 21 -- Shares of Tencent Holdings fell to nearly a four-year low even though the Chinese technology giant refuted a media report that said the firm is considering further cuts in its investment portfolio to fund a series of share buybacks.

Tencent [HKG: 0700] ended 2.5 percent down at HKD286 (USD36.44) today, the lowest closing price since Dec. 21, 2018. The stock has dropped over 35 percent so far this year.

The social media and video games giant denied it was looking into selling down investments to finance the repurchases of its own shares, The Paper reported today, citing an executive at the Shenzhen-based firm. Tencent has enough cash to fund that program, the person added.

Dow Jones reported yesterday that Tencent is mulling selling down stakes in a number of internet companies, including food delivery giant Meituan, realty titan KE Holdings, and ride-hailing behemoth Didi Chuxing, to raise money for share buybacks and explore new businesses.

South African investment firm Naspers, Tencent’s biggest shareholder, announced earlier this month that it planned to sell about 1.12 million shares in the Chinese internet company through its Prosus unit, shrinking its stake to 28 percent from 28.9 percent. That was Naspers’s third sell down since investing in Tencent 21 years ago, following cuts in March 2018 and April last year.

To tackle the move by Naspers, Tencent spent HKD7.7 billion (USD980.9 million) to steady its stock price by buying its own shares over 22 consecutive trading days. Since the beginning of the year, it has used HKD17.7 billion (USD2.5 billion) to repurchase shares and secure top ranking in Hong Kong’s stock market, The Paper pointed out.

Amid a more challenging internet environment in China, Tencent’s second-quarter earnings dropped for the first time since it went public 18 years ago. Net profit sank 56 percent to CNY18.6 billion (USD2.6 billion) in the three months ended June 30 from a year earlier, while revenue fell 3 percent to CNY134 billion (USD19 billion).

Editor: Futura Costaglione