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NIO Jumps 76% on Electric-Car Maker's Second Day of U.S. Trading

NIO Jumps 76% on Electric-Car Maker's Second Day of U.S. Trading

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese electric-vehicle maker NIO Inc. closed up 76 percent on its second day of trading after its $1 billion U.S. initial public offering.

After pricing near the bottom its target range at $6.26 and a bumpy first day of trading on Wednesday, the shares rose as much as 92 percent Thursday before closing at $11.60 in New York trading. The company is backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd.

In an interview Wednesday, NIO Chief Financial Officer Louis Hsieh attributed the low initial price to bad timing, saying losses in Asian markets had made domestic investors “too jittery.”

NIO, now with a market value of almost $12 billion, is testing investor appetite for electric-car makers vying to become a Chinese answer to Tesla Inc. after government incentives have helped the country become the world’s biggest market for clean-energy vehicles. The stock may also be a bellwether for a clutch of Chinese startups such as Byton and Xpeng Motors Technology Ltd., which aim to join established automakers such as BMW AG, Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Co. in convincing customers to switch to battery-powered autos.

The offering was led by banks including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., which have an option to buy 24 million additional shares to cover over-allotments.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Hytha in San Francisco at mhytha@bloomberg.net;Alex Barinka in San Francisco at abarinka2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Jamie Butters

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