Bank of China shares fall in listing debut
( 2002-07-25 11:00 ) (7 )

Shares of Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd. traded lower in opening trade Thursday in its listing debut on the main board of Hong Kong stock exchange, dealers said.

BOC Hong Kong shares were quoted HK$8.40 in opening trade, down from the initial public offering (IPO) price of HK$8.50 on the mainboard debut on turnover of 121.20 million shares, dealers said.

The bank offered for sale 2.298 billion shares or 21.74 percent of the share capital, with the international offering accounting for 65 percent of the total offer.

The public debut of BOC Hong Kong, China's first overseas bank listing, has attracted significant interest.

The Hong Kong retail portion of the offering was oversubcribed 27 times, while the insitutional portion was more than five times oversubcribed.

Demand came from investors in Hong Kong, Asia, North America and Europe, the bank said.