Shares in Alibaba surged by 38 per cent on their first day of trading, valuing Jack Ma’s Chinese ecommerce juggernaut at more than $230bn and making it the 17th largest publicly traded company in the world.
The stock – which trades under the ticker BABA – closed at $93.89, compared to the $68 per share offer price late on Thursday. The shares began trading on Friday at $92.70, the largest opening rise for an IPO over $10bn, according to Dealogic.
About 100m shares changed hands in the first 10 minutes, as the price briefly hit $99.70 before dipping back below the opening price to around $90 in lunchtime trading. By day’s end more than 271m shares were traded.