China’s Zhongji InnoLight slips on Hong Kong debut after city’s biggest share sale in 2026

[HONG KONG/SINGAPORE] Shares of Zhongji Innolight declined in their Hong Kong debut on Thursday (Jul 30), after the Chinese maker of data centre optical parts raised HK$53.4 billion (US$6.8 billion) in the city’s biggest share sale this year.

The stock last traded at HK$957, down 2.3 per cent from its offer price of HK$980, after opening at HK$971. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.1 per cent, while the Hang Seng Tech Index was down 0.5 per cent.

Zhongji topped the most actively traded stocks by turnover in early trade in Hong Kong, ahead of Tencent and Xiaomi.

Its debut comes after a sharp pullback in Asian chip shares rattled the AI trade, as investors questioned high valuations, the cost of building AI data centres and rising competition from Chinese technology suppliers.

The listing is Hong Kong’s largest share sale in 2026 and the city’s biggest since Alibaba Group raised US$12.9 billion in a secondary listing in 2019, according to LSEG data.

It is also Asia’s second-largest listing so far in 2026, after Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT debuted up 466 per cent following a US$8.6 billion IPO in Shanghai on Monday.

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Companies have raised US$33.8 billion from new listings in Hong Kong so far in 2026, a record year-to-date total based on LSEG data. That is more than double the US$16.4 billion raised in the year-earlier period in 2025. REUTERS