(Yicai Global) April 7 -- Jack Ma and Ma Huateng have tied for the title of China's most affluent man for the first time as the Covid-19 pandemic has shaken up the two tech tycoons' fortunes along with those of other global billionaires.

By the end of March, Alibaba Group Holding's founder Jack Ma had lost 9 percent and Tencent Holdings's Pony Ma 7 percent from two months earlier to both have CNY290 billion (USD40.9 billion), according to Hurun Research Institute's report 'Wealth Impact 2mths after Covid-19 Outbreak' published yesterday.

The virus epidemic has made the world's top 100 billionaires lose about CNY2.6 trillion (USD367.1 billion), shrinking their aggregate net worth by 13 percent, the report added. But the impact is not shared equally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 21 percent over the two months, and the main stock benchmarks of Japan and Hong Kong logged double-digit declines while the Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.2 percent.

By late March, when shops were reopening in Chinese cities, the country made up 29 percent of the world's top 100 billionaires, up from 23. Meanwhile, the US tally fell to 34 from 36 as the epidemic accelerated its spread abroad.

"China has been a relative winner, with its stock markets weathering the virus better than the US and European counterparts," the Chinese institute's Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf wrote in the report.

Only nine out of the global top 100 have gained during the time of crisis. All of them are Chinese passport holders.

Yuan Zheng, the founder of video conferencing platform Zoom, has boosted his fortune the fastest as his net worth rose by 77 percent to CNY56.5 billion (USD8 billion). Besides remote work, another trending theme is pork. New Hope Group's founder Liu Yonghao expanded his wealth by 20 percent to CNY105 billion. Qin Yinglin and Qian Ying, the couple behind Muyuan Foodstuff did so by 16 percent to CNY155 billion.

Another trend is medical equipment. The global surge in demand shows as monitoring device maker Mindray Medical International's founder Xu Hang boosted his wealth by 26 percent to the tune of CNY95 billion. 

However, some Chinese entrepreneurs have lost money, and not because of the virus. Luckin Coffee's controlling shareholder Lu Zhengyao and founder Qian Zhiya suffered from a 90 percent slump in the Starbucks rival's stock price last week due to a short selling-fuelled investigation of an alleged earnings fraud. Their combined fortune shrank to exclude them from the billionaire club.

Editor: Emmi Laine