Fidelity, T. Rowe Price funds load up on Alibaba shares
By Tim McLaughlin and Ross Kerber
BOSTON (Reuters) - Big mutual funds at T. Rowe Price Group and Fidelity Investments are the industry's largest holders of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd shares, according to recent fund disclosures.
Alibaba's initial public offering in late September, the largest in history, has helped boost the performance of many fund managers, the data show.
The T. Rowe Price Growth Stock Fund was No. 1 with 6 million Alibaba shares at the end of September. The $43 billion (26.91 billion pound) fund is up 3.63 percent in the past month, beating 91 percent of its peers.
Fidelity's $110 billion Contrafund , run by star stock picker Will Danoff, was the second largest holder with 3.23 million Alibaba shares.
Alibaba's IPO initially raised $21.8 billion. The stock surged 38 percent in its market debut, and is up 16 percent in the past month, valuing China's e-commerce leader at $257 billion.
Alibaba shares rose nearly 4 percent to $102.35 shortly after midday.
Fidelity's Diversified International Fund , the No. 3 mutual fund holder with 3.04 million Alibaba shares, said in recent commentary that the stock helped the fund outperform its benchmark MSCI EAFE Index, with a negative return of 5.02 percent versus minus 5.87 percent, in the third quarter. And Contrafund's 1.77 percent return in the quarter beat the 1.13 percent advance of the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index.
The $7.6 billion T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Stock Fund , which held 937,174 Alibaba shares as of Sept. 30, said its largest third-quarter purchase to initiate a position in the company. The fund is up 7.67 percent this year, beating 92 percent of its peers.
Alibaba accounts for about 80 percent of online sales in China, Fidelity Diversified International Fund manager William Bower told investors in a commentary letter.
(Writing by Tim McLaughlin; Additional reporting by Ross Kerber. Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Richard Chang)
