The shares of China Construction Bank jumped 32.56 percent on their trading debut in Shanghai today amid strong buying of the biggest initial public offering on the Chinese mainland.

The bank opened at 8.55 yuan (US$1.14) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, up from its offer price of 6.45 yuan apiece, the upper limit of its price range.

Construction Bank raised 58.05 billion yuan in its nine-billion shares sale in Shanghai - the biggest shares sale on the Chinese mainland.

Retail investors oversubscribed the yuan-backed offering about 40 times and institutional investors 34 times.

The lender decided to offer 70 percent of the total offering to individual investors, up from a previously planned 65 percent, due to the heavy subscription.

Guotai Jun'an Securities Co expects the bank to trade between eight yuan and 9.6 yuan during its debut while China Securities' She Minhua expects the stock to float between 8.5 yuan and 9.5 yuan. Ping An Securities expected the bank to trade between 7.2 yuan and 8.75 yuan.

“I had thought of putting all my holding on Construction Bank if the debut price is less than 9.0 yuan,'' said Hua Qi, a 30-year-some retail investor in the financial industry. “But I had thought it's unlikely as the debut prices always surged and I will not take the risk once it's beyond nine yuan.''

Construction Bank's capital adequacy ratio will top 13.15 percent after the shares sale, up from the regulatory minimum requirement of eight percent.

(Shanghai Daily September 25, 2007)