U.S. political opposition scuttled China's takeover of a major American oil company this week. But money had no problem flowing in the other direction Friday as a Chinese Internet firm made its debut on Wall Street -- and scored the biggest one-day stock surge since 2000.
American investors opened their wallets for Beijing-based Internet search engine Baidu.com Inc. and drove the stock up from its initial sale price of $27 to $122.54 at the close of trading, for a 354% gain.
The rousing reception reportedly made instant millionaires of about 100 workers at the rapidly growing company, nicknamed "the Chinese Google," and revived memories of the late-1990s dot-com boom, when new stocks routinely romped to massive gains.
"It's like I've gone into a time capsule," said Tom Taulli, an analyst who follows new share issues at investment bank Instream Partners in San Francisco. "What year is this?"
To investors, the stock offering united two of the world's most alluring growth themes -- China's economy and Internet commerce -- amid the rush by Chinese to use online services even in the face of government restrictions on Internet content.
The robust U.S. demand for Baidu.com's stock also underlined what some Chinese say is a double standard: Although that country says it has welcomed U.S. investment, the recent attempt by Chinese oil giant CNOOC Ltd. to buy American energy firm Unocal Corp. was dropped after stoking a firestorm in Congress.
CNOOC on Tuesday pulled its $18.5-billion offer for Unocal, citing "regrettable and unjustifiable" U.S. political opposition, including assertions by some in Congress that a Chinese takeover of Unocal posed a threat to U.S. security.
On Friday, by contrast, Baidu.com co-founder Robin Yanhong Li was all smiles in New York as he rang the ceremonial closing bell for the electronic Nasdaq Stock Market, where his company's shares began trading.
Baidu.com, the most-used Chinese-language search engine, raised $109 million from investors by selling 4.04 million shares at $27 apiece late Thursday.
On Friday morning the stock immediately rose to $66 in its first trade, then shot higher for the next few hours, reaching a peak of $151.21 before pulling back somewhat late in the day.
It was the wildest debut for any new stock since the tail end of the Internet mania five years ago, although the jump didn't match up with the 500%-plus one-day gains of some dot-com shares in 1999 and 2000 -- just before that investment craze peaked and technology stocks began one of the most devastating market declines in history.
