Thousands of small investors reaped profits of up to $16,000 each yesterday as the value of their stakes in Li Ka-shing's Internet company Tom.com rocketed on their first day of trading.
Punters who sold as the price peaked at $9.70 would have made a gross profit of just under $16,000 on their 2,000-share allocation.
Those who held on to their shares were $12,000 up at the close of trading on their initial investments of $3,560.
Shares in the Internet start-up, backed by Mr Li's flagships Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Hutchison Whampoa, closed at $7.75, justifying the optimism of more than 300,000 who queued to lodge applications in chaotic scenes last week.
Most small investors were allotted 2,000 shares at $1.78 each. This meant most could make a profit of between $11,940 and $15,840, minus brokers' fees.
Trading was frantic with 303 million shares traded, making it the third-hottest stock of the day after Pacific Century CyberWorks and Cable and Wireless HKT.
'We got quite a lot of orders but not all of them were executed in time - 2,000-share orders are not exactly a priority,' said broker Philip Ho Lap-chun.