(Yicai Global) Feb. 22 -- Shares in Chinalin Securities soared by the exchange-imposed daily limit today before receding after the mid-size Chinese brokerage said that it is purchasing TikTok operator ByteDance Technology’s stock information app Dolphin Stocks for CNY20 million (USD3.1 million).

Chinalin Securities’ share price [SHE:002945] was trading up 5.1 percent at CNY15.04 (USD2.40) as of 1 p.m. China time. Earlier in the day it had surged 10 percent to CNY15.74.

App operator Beijing Wenxing Online Technology, which is currently in the red, will become a specialized information technology subsidiary of Chinalin, the Shenzhen-based brokerage said yesterday. The Dolphin Stocks app is able to monitor the market dynamically using machine learning models and Big Data to provide traders with targeted market information.

Dolphin Stocks will be an important addition to the firm’s online digital services, Chinalin said. It will help provide customers with better services and speed up the company’s transition to a fintech firm, it added.

Rumors had been circulating since the second half of last year that Beijing-based ByteDance intended to downsize its financial businesses. But last December, Chinalin denied reports that it was a potential buyer.

ByteDance has developed a number of popular apps using artificial intelligence that are able to offer personalized services to users by data trawling and behavior analysis.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor