JD makes trading debut in HK

JD holds a listing celebration ceremony in Beijing to celebrate its initial public offering in Hong Kong on Thursday. (Photo provided to China Daily)

E-commerce giant JD saw its shares jump sharply on their trading debut in Hong Kong on Thursday, with a stock code of "9618".

The company's shares started trading at about HK$239 ($33.7), an increase of 5.75 percent compared with its initial offering price of HK$226.

It planned about 133 million new ordinary shares to raise about HK$29.8 billion to invest in supply chain-based key technology innovations, so as to further enhance user experience and operational efficiency.

The company debuted on the Nasdaq in 2014 and has witnessed its net income surging from 69.34 billion yuan ($9.8 billion) to 576.9 billion yuan in the past six years, with its annual active users rising from 47 million to 387 million.

JD's secondary listing comes on the heels of online gaming firm NetEase's Hong Kong market debut last week. Both happened after e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd raised $13 billion from the Hong Kong bourse via a secondary listing in November 2019.

Xu Lei, chief executive officer of JD Retail, said the company made a secondary listing in Hong Kong full of gratitude, hoping to share its development achievements with more customers and partners. He added he is confident in the Chinese mainland's economy.

In addition, JD, which initially coined the June 18 shopping carnival, reported its sales from JD Super, JD's online supermarket, increased 500 percent in the first ten minutes on June 18 compared with same period last year, with more than 2,000 brands witnessing their transaction volume jump 100 percent year-on-year.