Shares of Chinese social media giant Weibo open 6% lower on the first day of trading in Hong Kong

  • Hong Kong-listed shares of Weibo opened down 6% in their trading debut on Wednesday.
  • Shares opened at 256.20 Hong Kong dollars ($32.85) a piece compared to an offer price of 272.80 Hong Kong dollars ($34.98).
  • This is the Chinese social media giant's secondary listing where it raised approximately $385 million.

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Hong Kong-listed shares of Weibo opened 6% lower in their trading debut on Wednesday.

Shares opened at 256.20 Hong Kong dollars ($32.85) a piece compared to an offer price of 272.80 Hong Kong dollars ($34.98).

It is a secondary listing for the Chinese social media giant, which raised approximately $385 million.

The main listing is on the Nasdaq in the U.S., where the stock rose 4.69% in the overnight session.

Weibo's secondary listing comes as Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi last week said it will delist from the New York Stock Exchange, and make plans to list in Hong Kong.

Chinese regulators were reportedly unhappy with Didi's decision to list in the U.S. without first resolving outstanding cybersecurity issues. Regulators told the firm's executives to come up with a plan to delist from the U.S. due to concerns around data leakage, according to reports.

Didi is China's largest ride-hailing app and owns a large volume of data on travel routes and users.

Weibo is the latest Chinese internet company to do a secondary listing in Hong Kong.

Others that have done so in recent years include search engine giant Baidu, e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, its rival JD.com as well as gaming firm NetEase.

It has been a wild ride over the past year for China's technology sector. Regulators tightened their scrutiny on companies in a move that wiped billions of dollars off their market value. Meanwhile, Beijing continues to push for technological self-sufficiency.

CNBC's Weizhen Tan contributed to this report.

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