Li Ka-Shing’s CK Life Surges After Shares Doubled Wednesday

(Bloomberg) -- Shares of CK Life Sciences International Holdings Inc., a Hong Kong-based drug maker, capped their biggest two-day gain on record after saying a cancer treatment it’s developing is showing promise.

The stock jumped 23% on Thursday to HK$1.11, the highest closing level since 2005, after more than doubling in value in the previous trading session.

The company, controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. and the charitable foundation run by the 91-year-old retired tycoon, said in a filing Wednesday that late-stage clinical trials of a drug resulted in improvements in some cancer patients. A U.S.-based unit will present the findings of the study on Nov. 8, CK Life Sciences said.

The drug developer’s stock is still well below its listing price in 2002. The optimism over the trials sparked investor enthusiasm, leading to a surge in trading volume, with about 982 million shares changing hands on Thursday, more than 400 times the daily average in the past year.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Ken Wang in Beijing at ywang1690@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Nagarajan at samnagarajan@bloomberg.net, Kevin Kingsbury, Bhuma Shrivastava

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