Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- United Co. Rusal Ltd., the world’s largest aluminum producer, fell for a third day in Hong Kong trading, extending its drop since last month’s initial public offering to 20 percent.
The shares slumped 4.5 percent to close at HK$8.66 ($1.11) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. They cost HK$10.80 each in the IPO. Today marked the eighth slide in nine sessions for Rusal, controlled by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, since trading began.
“Hedge funds that participated have been disappointed with the dynamics of the IPO and are closing the trade and taking the loss,” said Joseph Dayan, head of international sales and trading at Otkritie Securities Ltd. in London. “The fact that liquidity is drying up is another negative.”
Trading in shares of Moscow-based Rusal, the first Russian company to list in Hong Kong, will be key to Asian investors’ perception of further share sales from companies located in Russia, Reinout Koopmans, Deutsche Bank AG’s head of equity capital markets for emerging Europe, said earlier this month. State-run OAO Russian Railways is among companies from the nation seeking to tap the Hong Kong market as soon as this year.
Investors bought and sold 8.91 million Rusal shares today, about 5 percent of the 188.2 million shares traded when the stock debuted on Jan. 27. The number of depositary receipts traded in Paris was 99,733 on Feb. 5, less than 10 percent of the first day’s activity.
Aluminum for delivery in three months advanced 2 percent to $2,020 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange at 10:34 a.m. local time after sliding 5 percent in the three prior sessions.
To contact the reporter on this story: Yuriy Humber in Moscow at yhumber@bloomberg.net
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