Many will have been pleased at yesterday's 2.76 per cent rebound in the Hang Seng Index but few will have been happier than Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun and his bankers.
Early yesterday they were forced into an embarrassing climb-down after Mr Ho's sister Winnie sought a judicial review of the initial public offering of Mr Ho's casino operator SJM Holdings.
To cover themselves against the new risk, SJM and its bankers postponed the stock's trading debut from today until July 16 and offered a three-day window for retail investors in the share sale to demand their money back.
In the event, Ms Ho's application for a review was turned down but the money-back offer remains open, leaving investors facing an unusual dilemma: whether or not to change their minds, turn down their allocation of shares and demand the return of their subscription cheques.
This, of course, is the exact opposite of the situation Hong Kong's IPO investors have got used to in recent years. Typically, they sent off their cheques only to be told that the offering was so massively oversubscribed that their application had either been entirely unsuccessful or that they had been allotted just a tiny fraction of the shares they wanted.
This time around, however, the vast majority of retail subscribers need not worry about their applications failing. SJM's retail offering was oversubscribed by a mere 17 per cent. That compares with retail tranches oversubscribed by 20,000 per cent or more at the height of last year's bull market.
But it is likely a good many of the 11,490 investors who did apply will now be having second thoughts.