PetroChina, worth more than $1 trillion, surged past Exxon Mobil as its shares nearly tripled in their first day of trading in Shanghai. Alibaba.com went public in Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Nov. 6th, with a market cap of $8.8 billion. The Chinese stock market, IPOs and stock prices are once again the focus of the global market. The value of mainland China’s public offerings for this year hit a record $61bn (‚Ǩ42bn, ¬£29bn) this week, leaving New York, London and Hong Kong trailing in its wake. However, western financial celebrities Alan Greenspan and Warren Buffet both warned about overheating of China’s stock market.
However, Petrochina is also under great pressure. The Chinese government’s price controls made the price artificially low so PetroChina’s refinery business is losing tens of millions of dollars a day.
From the Financial Times:
According to Dealogic, eight of the top 10 mainland IPOs have occurred this year. In September, the listing of China Shenhua Energy raised $8.8bn while China Construction Bank raised $7.7bn.
Among the IPOs still to come is China Railway Group, a unit of China Railway Engineering Corp , which is preparing a Shanghai and Hong Kong listing next year that is likely to raise up to $4bn.
The Financial Times reported last week that at least seven Chinese shipbuilders are planning share offerings on mainland or overseas bourses to raise development capital. [Full Text]
See also: PetroChina: The world’s first $1 trillion company from moneycentral.msn.com.
