Alibaba IPO Soars

Alibaba.com, the largest business-to-business portal in China underwent its first day of public share trading in Honk Kong, and the results exceeded allexpectations, as the price tripled, raising $1.5 billion. It was the biggest Internet offering since Google went public three years ago.   Alibaba.com also owns auction site Taobao, which eclipses eBay in China,as well as the online payment service Alipay.   The original offer price of shares wasHK$13.5, but it opened at HK$30and closed at HK$39.5, a gain of nearly 193 per cent, making the shares the largest first-day surge on the exchange this year.   The offering was reportedly 257times oversubscribed. The closing price makes it one of the most expensive stocks on the Hong Kong exchange.   The closing stock price of HK$39.5 means that Alibaba.com is valued at $25.6bn,leaping it into fifth place among global Internet companies. It also makes it the biggest Internet company in Asia, except for Japan.