The action could get even more volatile next week as Shanghai Industrial Holdings Ltd's red-hot Chinese medicine spinoff begins trading.

Shares of computer hardware maker Pine Technology Holdings Ltd ended Friday at HK$1.74, up 16 percent from their IPO price of HK$1.50.

They debuted at HK$2.80 but fell quickly, hitting a morning low of HK$1.67 on strong turnover of HK$239.3 million, making it the day's ninth most active stock.

The performance did not match Thursday's debut of Timeless Software Ltd and China Agrotech Holdings Ltd which ended their first trading day with respective gains of 80 and 60 percent over their issue prices.

But China Agrotech, a crop chemicals producer, fell 21.35 per cent or HK$0.41 on Friday to HK$1.56. Timeless also sold down heavily, but recovered in the afternoon to end the day up 5.55 percent or HK$0.30 at HK$5.70.

Small issues, big demand
Analysts said the volatility reflects speculative activity from retail investors combined with small issue sizes.

"I think investors are just looking for short term profits,"said said Stella Lau, fund manager at East Asia Asset Management. "They'll take the quick profits from the IPOs and then move on to the next."

Next week's listings have been swamped with applications for shares. Market sources said SIIC Medical Science and Technology (Group) Ltd's Hong Kong public offering has been 600 times subscribed.

The Shanghai Industrial spinoff, backed by blue chip giants Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd CITIC Pacific Ltd, Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd is offering 215.8 million shares at HK$1.63 each.

It is selling 21.6 million shares in the public offering. The remainder will go to institutions, which oversubcribed the placing by 57 times.

Telecom monitoring equipment firm TS Telecom Technologies is expected to report that its IPO is more than 150 times subscribed. The company is offering 79.2 million new shares at HK$1.50 each, with only 15.84 million earmarked for public subscription.

Institutions more cautious
Hong Kong's new second board is billed as a "buyer beware" market that aims to become greater China's Nasdaq.

"The fact that these are technology shares will draw quite a bit of retail interest," said John Lai, chief investment officer of Nikko Global Asset Management Ltd.

"As for institutions, there is some interest in certain stocks, but the quality still has to be seen," he said.

Brokers said Pine traded below its unofficial grey marketprice of about HK$3 per share earlier this week.

A research chief at a local brokerage house said investors were less interested in Pine because it did not offer the boundless growth potential of Internet and e-commerce plays.

It makes hardware such as modems and portable MP3 devices that can play music files downloaded from the Internet. "We think this is kind of a low-margin business and the growth prospects are not really exciting," he said.

Chinese TV maker fares better
Another new listing on the main board, Chinese television and appliances maker TCL International Holdings Ltd fared better than Pine, ending the day 38.6 percent above its IPO price.

TCL was the market's fifth most active issue with turnover of HK$426.5 million and closed at HK$2.425, above its debut price of HK$2.20. The company sold 600 million shares at HK$1.75 each in its IPO.