China insurer PICC debut shines through Hong Kong IPO gloom as the shares in this Chinese state-owned insurer PICC Group, recently cited a high of approx 8 percent in its Hong Kong trading debut on Friday. The surge has definitely proved out to be a rare but bright spot in an otherwise dismal year for initial public offerings in the city and most other big regional markets.

Before the high, PICC was very unlikely to kick-start the Hong Kong IPO market as it was heading for its worst fund raising year since the onset of the global financial crisis in the year 2008.

"You have to judge the success of the transaction over the next few days and weeks, rather than just today", said Mr. Philippe Espinasse, a former investment banker with Nomura and UBS in Hong Kong and author of 'IPO: A Global Guide'. "I'm a bit sceptical (about a surge in IPOs). It'll take more than one deal for the market to fully reopen", he added.

The company is well known as People's Insurance Company (Group) of China. As officials clear, it is one of the last companies among the big state-owned companies to go public, a process that started in the 1990s with many large oil companies, banks and insurers going public due to China's liberalization of its vast and underdeveloped economy.