IPO underpricing in Hong Kong: a sectoral perspective

Abstract

This report analyses the factors that might influence the returns of newly issued shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the years of 2004 to 2006. Three time periods have been used to calculate the returns: 1, 5 and 20 days. Factors and returns have been processed in relation to each company Hang Seng Index (HSI) Sector. Our estimates indicate that the average return of the 128 companies for a 1-day period was 9.87%, 9.71% for a 5-day period and 9.57% for a 20-day period after the IPO date. The HSI Sector that was offering the highest return, but also the highest standard deviation, was the Finance Sector with a 20-day average return of 17.43% vs the Properties Sector with the lowest 20-day average return of 4.43%. Findings reveal that several factors influence the expected return of IPOs such as the GDP, the Hang Seng Index return and the number of IPOs surrounding the IPO date, if the company is an H-Share and the Price/Earnings ratio of the company prior to the IPO. We used dummy variables to target the specificity of each HSI Sectors. The Finance sector showed the highest level of significance according to the model.