Tianqi Lithium shares slump 9.2% in Hong Kong debut

:Tianqi Lithium shares sank 9.2 per cent in their Hong Kong debut on Wednesday, after the company raised $1.71 billion in its listing.

The shares started trading at HK$74.50 ($9.49) each compared to the final price set of HK$82 following the deal's bookbuild last week.

It slipped to as low as HK$72.65 before regaining some ground to $HK74.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.5 per cent.

Tianqi, which is also listed in Shenzhen and is one of the world's top producers of lithium chemicals for electric vehicle batteries, sold 164.12 million shares in the Hong Kong listing deal, according to its regulatory filings.

The price was at the top end of the $HK69 to HK$82 per share range initially set.

However, the price was nearly a 50 per cent discount to where the firm's Shenzhen stock was trading during the share sale.

Tianqi's Shenzhen stock fell 4.2 per cent in early trade on Wednesday.

Mainland listed stocks typically trade at a premium to Hong Kong listed stocks because of China's capital controls and a lack of fungibility between the two listed sets of shares.

($1 = 7.8495 Hong Kong dollars)