The shares of the American technology company Apple (Apple) recorded a drop for the second day after reports that employees of the Chinese government were banned from using iPhones.
The value of the company on the stock market fell in the last two days by more than six percent or almost 187 billion euros (about 200 billion dollars).
China is the technology giant's third largest market, where it generated 18 percent of its total revenue last year alone. In this Asian country, most of Apple's products are made by its largest supplier, Foxconn (Foxconn).
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The American newspaper Wall Street Journal reported two days ago that Beijing ordered employees of state agencies not to bring and use iPhones while at work.
The next day, Bloomberg wrote that the ban could be extended to employees of other government agencies.
The reports were released ahead of the launch of the iPhone 15, which is set to go on sale on September 12.
The Chinese government has not yet commented on these media reports.
The company Apple has the highest value on the stock market, close to 2.6 billion euros.
The company did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment. The shares of some of its suppliers also fell. Kvalkom, the world's largest supplier of smartphone chips, fell seven percent on Thursday, September 7.
Shares of South Korea's SK Hynix were down four percent on Friday. The news comes as tensions between Washington and Beijing remain high.
This year, America, along with allies Japan and the Netherlands, restricted China's access to some chip-making technologies.
Beijing retaliated by restricting exports of two key materials for the semiconductor industry.
China also announced that a new investment fund worth 38 billion euros is being prepared to strengthen the domestic chip industry.
During US Commerce Secretary Gina Raymond's visit to Beijing last week, Chinese tech giant Huawei unexpectedly unveiled its own Mate 60 Pro smartphone.
The company launched the pre-sale of the Pro+ model on Friday.
Canadian technology research company Techinsites (TechInsights) announced that the phone is equipped with the new 5G Kirin 9000s processor developed for Huawei by the largest Chinese chip manufacturer SMIK.
Dan Hutcheson, an analyst of this Canadian company, said that it "shows the technological progress of the Chinese semiconductor industry".
Mike Gallagher, chairman of the US House Committee on China, called on the Commerce Department this week to further limit exports to Huawei and SMIK.
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