Tepid Start for Trading in Agricultural Bank of China

The Agricultural Bank of China still hopes to clinch the title of the world's biggest stock market listing, but its market debuts in Shanghai and Hong Kong have been anything but breathtaking. Agricultural Bank shares closed at 3.27 Hong Kong dollars (42 cents), up 2.2 percent from its offering price of 3.20 Hong Kong dollars. That was better than the 0.8 percent gain that the Shanghai-listed shares managed on their mainland China introduction on Thursday, but lackluster compared with the bank's Chinese peers when they first traded over the last few years.