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Sandy Li

Shares of Tianjin TEDA Biomedical Engineering plunged 38.77 per cent on their debut on the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) amid a wave of selling of biotechnology stocks.

Tianjin TEDA closed at 60 HK cents against its issue price of 98 HK cents, with HK$18.12 million worth of shares changing hands.

The stock, which opened at 96 HK cents, hit an intra-day low of 58 HK cents.

Analysts said selling was precipitated by the news that CK Life Sciences International (Holdings) had applied for a GEM listing, which will increase the supply of listed biotechnology stocks.

Other GEM-listed biotech stocks plunged: Kinetana International Biotech Pharma fell 14.93 per cent to close at 28.5 HK cents and Extrawell Pharmaceutical dropped 10.26 per cent to 35 HK cents.

KGI Asia director Ben Kwong Man-bun said investors had become more selective amid a weak investment climate.

The timing of Tianjin TEDA's listing had been unfortunate, coming at a time of shrinking market liquidity.

He said forthcoming biotech listings were unlikely to generate retail investor enthusiasm with the exception of CK Life Sciences, which might be buoyed by goodwill towards its backers.

CK Life Sciences is a 60-40 per cent joint venture between blue-chip conglomerate Cheung Kong (Holdings) and the family of controlling shareholder Li Ka-shing.

One analyst attributed the poor debut to investors saving money for CK Life Sciences' listing.

Tianjin TEDA raised net proceeds of HK$70 million by listing H shares through placements.

In the year to December 31, the company's net loss widened 14.8 per cent year on year to 9.85 million yuan (about HK$9.23 million).



Tianjin TEDA shares tumble as investors desert biotech stocks