Alibaba.com debuts in Hong Kong, shares jump 137%

HONG KONG - Chinese e-commerce portal Alibaba.com made a strong debut on the Hong Kong stock market Tuesday, with its shares soaring 137 percent to 32 Hong Kong dollars ($4.12; €2.84) within minutes of its listing. Demand has been heavy for the business-to-business Web site, which raised more than $1.5 billion (€1.04 billion) through its global offering of 858.9 million shares, or a 17 percent stake of the company. The public portion of its offering was 257 times oversubscribed. Some analysts had cautioned that the stock was overpriced at its issue price of HK$13.5, but investors have been keen to tap into the booming Chinese technology market. Alibaba.com said its share sale was the biggest technology IPO since Google. ''The pent up demand is certainly there,'' Rick Munarriz, who researches media and technology companies for The Motley Fool, told The Associated Press in an e-mail. ''It would be hard to justify a triple or a quadruple (jump) at this point, but just the fact that you had $100 billion (€69.02 billion) in orders chasing $1.5 billion in stock bodes well for the debut.'' By midmorning in Hong Kong, Alibaba.com's shares had retreated to HK$29.95. - AP