CXMT Shares Surge 466% on Shanghai Debut, Becoming Mainland China's Most Valuable Onshore Listing

ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s leading maker of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips, saw its shares close up 466 per cent on their Shanghai trading debut, giving the company a market capitalisation of 3.28 trillion yuan (US$484.6 billion) and making it mainland China’s most valuable onshore listing. The semiconductor champion’s Monday debut saw unprecedented trading volume, with turnover exceeding 140 billion yuan as CXMT became the first mainland-listed stock to cross the 100 billion yuan single-day threshold. Even at its base size, the closely watched offering surpasses the 53.2 billion yuan raised by chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) in 2020. There were market concerns that CXMT would draw funds away from other Chinese technology stocks, prompting the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to hold a series of meetings with representatives of listed companies, securities firms, fund managers and academia. Participants called for stronger guidance of market expectations and a more institutionalised market-stabilisation mechanism, while the regulator pledged to respond to concerns and enhance the market’s inherent stability, according to a CSRC statement issued on July 21.