(Yicai Global) Jan. 5 -- China Mobile’s shares rose on their first day of trading in Shanghai. The world’s biggest telecoms carrier also announced a plan to buy back some of its Hong Kong-listed stock.

China Mobile [SHA: 600941] closed at CNY57.88 (USD9.10) today, a gain of 0.5 percent from its issue price of CNY57.58, giving it a market capitalization of CNY1.23 trillion (USD193.9 billion). The stock opened up 9.4 percent.

The state-owned company raised CNY48.7 billion (USD7.6 billion) by selling 845.7 million shares in Shanghai, almost half of which were issued to 19 strategic investors. If the so-called green shoe option is used, it would bank CNY56 billion, surpassing the CNY54 billion that smaller rival China Telecom raised last August. 

China Mobile will repurchase up to 2 billion of its own Hong Kong-listed shares [HKG: 0941], equal to no more than 10 percent of the total outstanding, after the exercise period of the Shanghai green shoe option expires on Feb. 7, it said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late yesterday.

The Beijing-based firm did not disclose any reason for the buyback, but listed companies usually carry out such plans to buoy their stock price by removing some of their equity from the market.

China Mobile climbed 3.3 percent in Hong Kong today to close at HKD49.60 (USD6.36). The stock gained almost 15 percent last year.

The company is one of the three major telecoms carriers in China. It expects revenue to have jumped 10 percent to 11 percent to between CNY844.9 billion and CNY852.6 billion (USD132.8 billion and USD134 billion) last year. Net profit likely rose 6 percent to 8 percent to between CNY114.3 billion and CNY116.5 billion.

Editor: Futura Costaglione