The H shares of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) rose 12 percent to close at 12 HK dollars (1.54 US dollars) in their debut trading in the Hong Kong stock exchange Thursday.

Stocks of the company opened at 12.40 HK dollars and traded between 11.96 and 12.66 HK dollars during the day. More than 1 billion shares changed hands, involving 14.32 billion HK dollars.

"I'm satisfied with the price (of the company) in the debut trading," said Li Guorui, chairman of the company, at the debut ceremony, stressing that the huge fund raised through the initial public offering (IPO) will greatly enable the company to expand business scope and bring more benefits to shareholders.

CRCC was the third most popular IPO in Hong Kong in terms of share demand, receiving more than 540 billion HK dollars worth of orders from retail investors.

The company raised 18.2 billion HK dollars from its Hong Kong IPO, pricing the shares at 10.7 HK dollars, the top of the range.

The retail tranche was 293 times subscribed after investors filled 800,946 applications for the shares. The institutional portion was about 40 times covered, with orders worth 660 billion HK dollars.

The A shares of the company were listed in Shanghai on Monday, rising 28 percent in the debut trading.