The H shares of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest commercial bank in China, started trading in the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday.

ICBC's shares opened at 3.60 HK dollars, 17 percent higher than its initial public offering (IPO) price of 3.07 HK dollars, well meeting market expectations of a rise between 10 and 20 percent.

"This is a milestone in our bank's development, and we are aiming to turn our bank into one that will provide best service and high economic returns," said Jiang Jianqing, chairman of the ICBC, at the launching ceremony here.

Boosted by the ICBC's strong debut, the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index rose 47 points,or 0.25 percent, to open at 18,400.81 on Friday, surpassing the previous record of 18,398 points scored in March 2000.

The is the first Chinese enterprise to have issued the record-smashing IPO and have been listed simultaneously in Hong Kong and Shanghai bourses.

In Shanghai, the ICBC A shares opened at 3.4 yuan (US$0.43), 8.97 percent higher than its IPO price of 3.12 yuan (US$0.39).

Including the overallotment option, the ICBC raised 21.9 billion U.S. dollars through its IPO, far exceeding the previous record, an US$18.4 billion IPO by Japanese mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo Inc. in 1998.

In Hong Kong, retail investors ordered shares worth 423.7 billion HK dollars or 78 times more stock than was offered to them, outseating the Bank of China, which attracted 286 billion HK dollars in retail orders, as the most popular IPO in Hong Kong history.

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2006)