The strong debut provides a gauge of how much investors are willing to pay for a marquee Chinese chip firm, as local markets navigate volatility following an AI-led selloff.
Around 141.1 billion yuan worth of CXMT shares were traded in Shanghai on Monday, becoming the first A-share stock to exceed 100 billion yuan turnover in a day, according to local media reports.
Chinese chipmaking .CSI932087 shares dropped 0.4% while semiconductor firms .CSIH30184 climbed 0.8%, as fund managers repositioned for CXMT shares.
"Investor appetite is largely being driven by providing Chinese investors a way to meaningfully get exposure to the current memory supercycle," said Jing Jie Yu, equity analyst at Morningstar.
Yu said the deal was priced at a steep discount, at roughly one times Morningstar's estimated 2027 price-to-book value versus 2.1 to 2.3 times for global peers. But he argued the stock's first-day surge was excessive, pointing to the memory sector's cyclical nature and the longer-term drag from U.S. export controls that restrict access to advanced chipmaking technology.
CXMT's astronomical rally, which values it at nearly half of U.S. rival Micron MU.O, has also sparked concerns of a bubble. Its expanding dominance in China has enabled it to raise prices for tech customers such as Huawei.
"The (CXMT) stock is too expensive and smells of speculation," said Yuan Yuwei, hedge fund manager at Trinity Synergy Investments, adding that "it's hard to say the optimism is sustainable."
AI-linked stocks, including chipmakers, have been at the forefront of global equity market gains this year. But concerns about stretched valuations and whether hefty AI-related capital expenditures will generate earnings growth quickly enough have recently dampened investor enthusiasm.
In other Asian markets, tech-heavy South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 and Taiwanese stocks .TWII were up nearly 1% and down 0.5%, respectively, while MSCI's IT index for Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJIT00NUS fell 4.7%.
Only 6.73% of CXMT's enlarged share capital was freely tradable at listing, as most shares are locked up. The small initial float could magnify price swings and attract strong turnover.
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