Fidelity cuts its stake in PetroChina Co.

Boston-based Fidelity Investments, a target of activists seeking to curb investment in companies doing business in Sudan, has sold most of its US holdings in a Chinese oil firm linked to the African country’s flourishing oil industry.

The nation’s largest mutual fund company cut its US stake in PetroChina Co. by 91 percent. Fidelity held 420,916 American depositary receipts in PetroChina on the New York Stock Exchange as of March 31, down from 4.499 million three months earlier, according to a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Each American depositary receipt equals 100 shares, meaning Fidelity’s US investment in PetroChina was reduced from $634 million at the end of last year to $49 million at the end of March.

Activists who equate investment in Sudan with support for genocide have targeted Fidelity, saying it was the largest owner of PetroChina stocks on the NYSE at the end of last year.

The African nation’s Darfur region has been torn by violence since 2003, with tribal rebels targeted by militias that observers say are supported by the government. At least 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have become refugees.

A Fidelity spokesman today declined to say why the company reduced its PetroChina holdings.

A coalition that has led the campaign against Fidelity called the reduced stake in PetroChina a positive step.

‘‘Fidelity now appears to be taking steps to divest their significant PetroChina holdings,’’ said David Rubenstein, executive director of the Save Darfur Coalition. ‘‘While questions remain about Fidelity’s Hong Kong holdings -- a matter Fidelity must publicly resolve -- the company appears to be making a genuine effort to financially separate from PetroChina.’’

Fidelity International Ltd., a Fidelity-affiliated company in London that serves investors outside the United States, holds shares of PetroChina listed on a Hong Kong exchange.

Dozens of US universities and 10 states have decided to sell investments in companies doing business in Sudan, including PetroChina.
(AP)