When Square’s shares surged 45 per cent on their first day of trading in New York last month, the online payments group shrugged — publicly, at least. Its opening day “pop” ranked just fifth among US initial public offerings in the year to date, and 27th in the past five years.

But if a Hong Kong IPO had resulted in a one-day price rise of that magnitude, it would have been truly remarkable. Opening-day pops among Hong Kong listings are so rare that the 0.32 per cent price rise enjoyed by China Huarong Asset Management on its IPO put it into the city’s top 10 debuts for the year.

Even the biggest pop in Hong Kong this year — the 35 per cent enjoyed in March by GF Securities, the mainland broker, at the height of China’s market rally — was comfortably behind that of Square.