From all over free Asia last week, capital flooded into Hong Kong. In the island colony itself, bank withdrawals ran more than ten times normal ratesbut not out of panic. Among Asian investors, the rush was on to buy the first public stock offering of the most powerful British trading company east of Suez: 129-year-old Jardine, Matheson & Co. By week's end the 900,000-share secondary issue had been oversubscribed 56 times, and Jardines' stock, which had been distributed at $2.78, was changing hands in private deals at $5.22.
Jardines' shares were no...
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