Chinese firms queue for listing

INVESTORS in

Latest to test the water is Chia Hsin Cement Greater China, owned by Taiwan's third-largest cement maker.

Its HK$423.28m (£31.2m) offer has attracted heavy demand - the retail portion was raised to 50% from 10% after being 316 times oversubscribed. There was institutional demand for nearly seven times the shares on offer. Trading will begin on Friday.

It will be followed by Chinese truck and sport utility vehicles maker Great Wall Automobile on 15 December, and China Life on 17 December in New York and in Hong Kong the next day.

Demand for that offer was so great that Hong Kong investors queued outside banks for shares. The issue was 680 times oversubscribed.

Despite the appetite for new China issues, the H-share index of Hong Kong-listed Chinese companies, was subdued as some investors took profits after big gains yesterday.

The index, launched on Monday, saw oil producer, PetroChina, its most heavily weighted share, fall 1.4% to HK$3.45 after a rise of 7% yesterday.

Elsewhere stocks narrowed their losses after a lacklustre start. The benchmark Hang Seng index fell 2.28 points to 12,391.36.

Blue-chips were mixed with property developer Henderson Land Development giving up early gains to trade unchanged at HK$32.70. Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong fell 0.4% to HK$60.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average fell 213.72 points to 9910.56 on the usual fears that a rising yen would hammer exports. The electronics sector was hard hit with Tokyo Electron falling 4.6% to 7470 yen.

Apart from currency concerns it was also hurt by disappointing results from the world's largest contract chipmakers, Taiwan Semiconductor and United Microelectronics.

Securities companies also performed badly. Daiwa fell 3.7% to 645 yen and Nomura was down 3.8% at 1658 yen.

Rupert Murdoch's volatile News Corp led trading lower from the open in Sydney, falling 0.3% to A$11.30. The media group has risen slightly this week on news that it may soon get the go-ahead from the US Federal Communications Commission for its acquisition of DirecTV.

Generally stocks were flat with the All Ordinaries index down 6.6 points at 3212.90.

Blood products group CSL, trading again after yesterday's announcement that it was to buy rival Aventis, rose 6.85% to A$17.63. The miners, unnerved by the rise of the Aussie dollar, regained some ground. BHP Billiton was up 1.65% at A$11.71 and Rio Tinto rose 1.23% to A$36.14.

Singapore stocks bucked the Asian trend with the Straits Times index edging ahead 0.87 points to

1712.23.

This disguised mixed trading amid fears about the effect of a weak US dollar on exports and the Nasdaq's slide, which hit tech stocks. Chartered Semiconductor was down

1.25% at S$1.58 and contract electronics maker Venture fell 1% to S$19.60.

Singapore Airlines was flat on news that it would start its own budget airline, with Ryanair's Tony Ryan an investor. It was unchanged at S$11.90.

Media group Singapore Press Holdings was unchanged at S$18.60, while Singapore Telecom rose 1% at S$1.86.