MOSCOW (MRC) -- China oil giant CNOOC Ltd shares surged as much as 44% in their Shanghai debut on Thursday, defying broad market weakness, as investors sought safety in the Chinese oil giant amid high energy prices and quickening inflation, reported Reuters.
After opening 20% higher, CNOOC shares immediately shot up 44% on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, hitting a price ceiling for the day and triggering a 30-minute trading halt. The stock ended the session up 27.7%.
It marked a bright spot in a bleak Shanghai market that slumped more than 2% amid COVID-19 lockdowns and geopolitical tensions.
"CNOOC is being chased by investors who are seeking shelter in big caps with relatively low valuation and high dividends," said Linus Yip, chief strategist at First Shanghai Group. "The stock also whets market appetite at a time when oil prices are climbing and inflation accelerating."
China's largest offshore oil producer raised 28.08 billion yuan ($4.41 billion) in the country's 11th-biggest public stock offering. It said it would use the proceeds to fund one gas and seven oilfield projects in China and overseas, and to replenish capital.
The Shanghai listing "is a key milestone in the company's history," CNOOC Chairman Wang Dongjin said in a statement.
CNOOC will fully exploit financing channels both home and abroad, to promote quality growth, and create value for shareholders, he added.
As MRC wrote before, China's Ministry of Commerce on Nov. 10, 2021, allocated an additional 1 million mt of quotas to Sinopec, PetroChina and CNOOC to export their domestically produced bunker fuel oil for bonded bunkering at China's ports in 2021.
CNOOC is China's third largest national oil company after CNPC and Sinopec. The company was founded in 1982. The headquarters is located in Beijing. The company is engaged in the production, processing and marketing of oil and natural gas offshore China. The Chinese government owns 70% of the company's shares.
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