Standard Chartered continued its see-saw ride on the London stockmarket yesterday in the run-up to the pricing of its Hong Kong share issue at the end of the week. Following an exodus of investors in early trade on Monday which took the share price down at one stage by 20 pence, or 2.7 per cent, the counter bounced back in early trade yesterday - rising by 32.5 pence, or 4.3 per cent, from an early low to 762 pence. By the close of trade, the price had settled back to 763.5 pence. Prospective investors in the 35-million share issue now being marketed to support the emerging market bank's dual Hong Kong listing - due on October 31 - will be keenly watching the direction taken by the share price over the remaining days of the week. The price they will pay for their stakes will be determined by the closing level on Friday, and since the bank has capped the maximum price at HK$103, any advances above this level would translate into immediate capital gains for new shareholders. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported yesterday that the flagship companies of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Hutchison Whampoa, had bought an undisclosed number of new Standard Chartered shares. News of the deal was unlikely to have influenced buyers in London, analysts told the South China Morning Post. The belief of some investors that the Hong Kong tycoon had a 'Midas touch' had taken something of a battering in recent months, they said. 'And suggestions that this was a 'strategic holding' by some commentators was ludicrous given the amount of shares involved - a small share issue that will only amount in total to 3 per cent of the bank's shares,' an analyst said. A spokesman for Goldman Sachs yesterday declined to comment on investors' response to the marketing of the offering.