China Everbright Bank (601818.SH) beat market expectations as its stock closed up 18% at RMB3.66 (US$0.54) on its first day of trading in Shanghai, the Financial Times reported. The bank, which raised US$2.8 billion (possibly rising to US$3.2 billion) enjoyed a debut performance far better than that of Agricultural Bank of China (601288.SH, 1288.HK), which last month tapped the market for a world record US$22.1 billion. Analysts said Everbright’s strong showing – on a day when the Shanghai Composite Index (SCI) closed down 0.2%, although it is up 13% since early July – was partly due to the bank announcing a first-half net profit of US$1 billion, putting it on course to nearly double full-year earnings for 2009. The bank also chose to price its shares at a discount to its listed peers.
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