China’s autonomous driving firms WeRide and Pony Ai slide in Hong Kong trading debut

(Reuters) -Shares of Chinese autonomous driving firms WeRide and Pony Ai dropped ​sharply on Thursday as the companies started trading ‌in Hong Kong, after raising nearly $1.2 billion combined in ‌their listings.

Pony Ai shares slid nearly 11% in early trading after it raised about $863 million, while WeRide opened down about 8%. WeRide raised ⁠about $308 million.

Hong Kong’‌s Hang Seng Index was up 0.5%.

The weak performance follows a softer ‍trading session in New York for the companies’ shares on Wednesday.

WeRide shares lost 5.2% on Wednesday in the ​U.S. while Pony Ai’s stock was ‌down 2%.

Electric vehicle maker Seres Group made a soft debut in Hong Kong on Wednesday when its shares closed flat, after earlier falling by as much as 10%. It was down 2% ⁠on Thursday.

Hong Kong has overtaken ​New York and Nasdaq as the ​global top venue for new listings this year, excluding special purpose acquisition companies, LSEG ‍data showed,⁠ with $31.2 billion raised so far, nearly tripling the listing value from the same ⁠period in 2024.

(Reporting by Kane Wu and Scott Murdoch;‌ Additional reporting Jiaxing Li; Editing by ‌Kim Coghill and Christopher Cushing)