Chinese largest gold producer Zijin Mining shines on Shanghai debut

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Shares of Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd. (HK:2899), Chinese largest gold producer, ended more than 95 percent up on Friday's debut at Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), surpassing analysts' predictions.

The share opened at 9.98 yuan (1.43 U.S. dollars) per share, which translated into a price-earning ratio of 55.44. It leapt as much as 202.9 percent in the afternoon trading, before a 30-minutesuspension in trading was requested by the SSE due to the stock's abnormal upward trend.

The stock closed at 13.92 yuan per share, up 95.23 percent from the offer price of 7.13 yuan.

Previously analysts predicted that Zijin would reach around 10 yuan for its debut.

"The stock market rebound on Thursday boosted investor sentiment for initial public offerings (IPOs)," Li Jing, an analyst from Founder Securities, was quoted by Saturday's China Daily as saying.

Li Li, an industry analyst from Qilu Securities, said that the share surged more than 200 percent during the intra-day trading showed that there was strong confidence in the market lifted by the government's measures to bolster the fragile market, adding that the price dipping to 13.92 yuan per share came into the reasonable range.

The overnight announcement of a cut in share trading taxes drove Chinese stocks 9.29 percent higher in soaring turnover on Thursday, with the key Shanghai Composite Index up 304 points to 3,583.03, the largest gain since Oct. 23, 2001.

The eastern Fujian Province-based mining company was one of the Top 500 Enterprises in the country and was listed in Hong Kong in 2003. It was included in the FTSE mining sector indexes in December 2004 and was added to the Dow Jones China Offshore 50 Index in March 2006.

Figures showed that its gold production accounted for 20.53 percent of the country's total output in 2006.