** Shares of hypermarket chain Sun Art Retail slump as much as 35.5% to HK$1.60, on track for their biggest one-day pct drop since listing in 2011
** Stock of Sun Art hits the lowest level since Sept. 24; third-biggest pct loser on the Hong Kong bourse
** E-commerce giant Alibaba Group said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell its majority stake in Sun Art to Chinese private equity firm DCP Capital for HK$12.298 bln ($1.58 bln)
** Stake sale part of Alibaba's reshuffling of its business portfolio to focus on its core e-commerce operations
** "The market had expected the sale to happen after the announcement by Sun Art related to possible transactions back in Oct-24," Jefferies said in a note, adding that the sale of Sun Art aligned with strategies
** Hong Kong shares of Alibaba slip 0.7%
** The Hang Seng Commerce & Industry Index falls 1.1%, the Hang Seng Consumption Index eases 1% and the Hang Seng Index drops 1.4%
($1 = 7.7719 Hong Kong dollars)
(Reporting by Donny Kwok)
((donny.kwok@thomsonreuters.com))
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