Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s stock rose in Hong Kong after it was made directly accessible to investors in mainland China for the first time.

Shares of the e-commerce company were added to the Stock Connect programme that links the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong starting from Tuesday. The stock gained as much as 5.2%, the most since Aug 16, with volume already more than double the three-month full-day average as of 10.20am.

The highly anticipated inclusion is expected to attract about US$20 billion of inflows into the stock into next year, with mainland investors’ likely to build a stake of over 10% in Alibaba, according to Bloomberg Intelligence (BI). That should also help Alibaba narrow its valuation discount to rival PDD Holdings Inc, according to BI analysts.

Shares of the e-commerce firm are up 7.5% in Hong Kong so far this year, compared with an 9% drop in the Hang Seng Tech Index. The inclusion is a timely boost after the company recently reported a revenue miss for the second quarter, as China’s weak consumption continues to sap retail sales momentum. 

Alibaba had been one of the few major Chinese stocks that was unable to join the Stock Connect, as it only had secondary listing status in Hong Kong. The company upgraded to dual-primary listing status for Hong Kong as well as New York in August, allowing it to finally be made available for mainland trading.

The Hong Kong exchange publishes turnover figures for the top 10 traded stocks via the links each day after the close.

Among other Hong Kong-listed stocks being made available to mainland traders on Tuesday, Mongolian Mining Corp rose as much as 12%. Among stocks being removed from the links, Shimao Group Holdings Ltd plunged 30%.

  - Bloomberg