Citic Securities makes lukewarm trading debut

Hong Kong-listed shares in Citic Securities, China’s biggest publicly traded brokerage, ended unchanged yesterday after tumbling more than 10% during their first day of trading, reflecting weak demand amid the global market volatility.

Citic’s stock price dropped to HK$11.90 $1.5 at one point in the morning trading session yesterday, 10.5% lower than the offer price of HK$13.30, but regained its losses in the afternoon as the Hang Seng Index ended up by 5.7%. However, some upbeat specialists described the first-day performance as “good”.

“Most blue-chip Chinese companies have fallen 20% to 30% so far this year. It’s good enough that Citic has...