Tame trading debut

HONG KONG: Shares of China Railway Construction rose 12 percent on its trading debut, in line with lowered expectations, but outperformed the Hong Kong stock market that fell 4.8 percent yesterday.

The railway construction company rose as much as 18.3 percent in the morning session before trading down to close at HK$12, up 12 percent from the offer price of HK$10.7.

It had raised more than HK$18.2 billion in Hong Kong and 22.2 billion yuan in Shanghai. The dual IPO was the world's largest so far this year and the most popular ever among Hong Kong's retail investors, despite the shaky market that has seen many IPO delays of late. It attracted applications 293 times the retail allotment, freezing a record of HK$534.2 billion.