China’s Twitter-like social media platform Weibo debuted on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday but slipped in early trade as investors remain wary of tech during a Beijing crackdown on the sector.
Weibo was trading 7.2 percent down from its initial listing price of HK$272.80 soon after the open, although it began to recover some of that ground by mid-morning.
Several US-listed Chinese tech firms such as Alibaba have held initial public offerings in Hong Kong over the past two years as the United States has stepped up scrutiny of Chinese companies.
Listing in Hong Kong is seen as a hedge against the risk of being removed from US exchanges and a way of accessing an investor base closer to their home markets.
China has also been encouraging its big-tech players to list either in Hong Kong or Shanghai.
Weibo raised a healthy $385 million in its Hong Kong IPO, its second listing after New York’s Nasdaq.
But its tepid debut points to ongoing concerns that China’s plans to rein in the tech sector are not over.
