Chinese coal miner falls on Hong Kong trading debut

A Chinese coal miner fell on its trading debut in Hong Kong Thursday, after raising more than $900 million in the city's second largest share sale so far this year. Shares of Inner Mongolia Yitai Coal Co. opened at HK$41.90, down 2.6 percent from its initial public offering price of HK$43. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 1.82 percent in early trade. Yitai, which produces thermal coal for power generation, sold nearly 163 million shares and priced its deal at the bottom end of its price range of HK$43-HK$53. It raised a total of $903 million. The IPO has been seen as a gauge of investor sentiment amid global market volatility and China's slowing economic growth, which has prompted several firms to cancel or postpone Hong Kong listings. Luxury London-based jeweller Graff Diamonds pulled its highly-anticipated $1.0 billion Hong Kong IPO, originally slated for June, due to "adverse market conditions". Chinese brokerage Haitong Securities, which raised $1.68 billion in its IPO in April in Hong Kong's largest share sale so far this year, also fell during its trading debut. Hong Kong retained its crown as the world's biggest initial public offering market for the third year in a row in 2011, thanks to a slew of companies that turned to the city in a bid to tap mainland China's explosive growth. But Hong Kong saw an 82-percent plunge in the funds raised through new listings in the first six months of 2012, to HK$30.6 billion compared to HK$174.7 billion in the same period last year. The southern Chinese city raised HK$260 billion from new listings last year.