Alibaba rockets ahead in Hong Kong debut


Alibaba more than doubled on its first day of trading in Hong Kong today. After the trading day ended, Alibaba took its place as Asia's second largest Internet company behind Yahoo! Japan. All in, Alibaba is now valued at over $23 billion.

With shareholders including Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Alibaba joins other high-flying Asian IPOs in 2007. I wrote briefly yesterday about the PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) IPO, which after it saw its value triple, is now the world's first trillion dollar company.

Part of what makes the Alibaba IPO so interesting is the firm's growth prospects. China's largest Web trading site for companies predicts profit will almost triple this year on increased spending in the world's fastest growing major economy.


Hot? Yes. According to Bloomberg data, Alibaba's IPO was the biggest by a Web company after Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) $1.9 billion float in August 2004.

Says Bloomberg, "Clients can advertise or buy products using Alibaba's Web site for free. The company charges suppliers from China and Hong Kong an annual fee to become so-called premium members, which enable them to gain preferential access to buyers."

China was home to 162 million internet users at the end of June, second only to the U.S., according to the government-backed China Network Information Center.

DISCLOSURE: I personally own shares of GOOG.

Zack Miller is the lead equity analyst for America Israel Investment Associates, LLC., the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-123.8612,766.60
NASDAQ-29.622,897.61
S&P 500-12.261,339.69

Last updated: February 10, 2012: 03:47 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.835-0.295(-1.54)

Alcoa

10.265-0.375(-3.52)

Apple Inc

493.34+0.17(+0.03)

Google Inc 'A'

605.45-6.01(-0.98)

Bank of America

8.055-0.125(-1.53)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.72-0.24(-0.39)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.51-1.37(-1.61)

Ford

12.425-0.265(-2.09)

Citigroup

32.855-0.805(-2.39)

IBM

191.79-1.34(-0.69)

Yahoo

16.19+0.19(+1.19)

Starbucks

48.705-0.495(-1.01)

Microsoft

30.445-0.325(-1.06)

Home Depot

45.20-0.07(-0.15)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1328906834851 ms.