Four newly-listed mainland firms have witnessed share price jumps on their trading debut in Hong Kong, heralding a recovery in the pre-Christmas stock market.

The recovering market sentiment, analysts said, bodes well for other mainland-listing candidates who are scheduled to trade their shares in Hong Kong in the coming weeks.

"The market has improved a bit this month after mega-IPOs were over," said Andes Cheng, associate director of South China Research Ltd. "New stocks are now coming into the limelight."

Zhejiang-based knitwear company Shenzhou International, which started trading its shares on November 24 at HK$2.265 apiece, ended HK$2.755 that day. The price continued to rise over the following days and peaked at HK$3 last Friday, reflecting an increase of 32 percent from the offering price.

Shares of mainland-focused retailer Parkson Retail Group Ltd gained 24 percent in its debut on November 30 to HK$12.15.

Ningbo-based and Taiwan-invested auto-parts maker Minth Group saw its shares up 42 percent on the first day of trading on Thursday to HK$3.2, seeing a total of 67.58 million shares worth HK$201.2 million change hands.

Shares of Suzhou-based property developer New Heritage Holdings Ltd notched up the largest jump for a debut stock this year in Hong Kong. Its price rose 55 percent to HK$0.9 a piece at its peak on Friday, the first day of trading.

The four companies have raised a total of US$379.5 million through IPOs.

Price rises were attributed to the recovery of market liquidity, that was soaked up by huge initial public offerings (IPO) such as China Construction Bank (CCB) and Link Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in the last two months, analysts said.

"No heavyweight-floats in December is the reason behind the success of recent smaller IPOs," said Kenny Tang, associate director of Tung Tai Securities.

"Given the favorable market environment, share prices of small caps can easily be driven up by speculation.

Such a fervour in the new, smaller stocks may last until the Christmas market close, both analysts said.

(China Daily December 6, 2005)