Forwarding a news piece today that had a major impact on the Hang Seng 'Food Delivery' Index. The crux: the State Administration for Market Regulation reposted an Economic Daily op-ed arguing the 'food-delivery price war' should end soon. Of course, this is not the first such line from state media, nor an official SAMR stance; it was merely a repost, though it may hint at regulators' leanings.

However, Dolphin Research believes that unless regulators step in and forcefully halt delivery subsidies, competition will still be driven by companies' own goals and appetite. As such, the actual impact of this 'signal' is uncertain; it mainly lifts sentiment and could accelerate participants' subsidy rollbacks and loss reduction. $Alibaba(BABA.US) $MEITUAN(03690.HK) $JD.com(JD.US)