The volume of share dealing in China Construction Bank soared yesterday, fuelling speculation that some buyers of Bank of America's $7.3bn sell-down had flipped their holdings to pocket huge gains.
The troubled US bank, which is trying to raise $34bn to meet regulators' capital requirements, on Tuesday sold 13.5bn shares in the mainland lender to a group of predominantly mainland investors via a private placement at HK$4.20 each, a discount of more than 14 per cent to the Monday night closing price.
The $7.3bn trade was finally executed yesterday and propelled the daily turnover of CCB's Hong Kong-listed shares to 18.2bn. Excluding the BofA sell-down, trading volume was about 11 times higher than normal.