Asian Markets: Metallurgical loses face in Hong Kong

Shares in Asia were mixed today, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropping 2.5 percent to close at 21,051. The biggest surprise was a 12 percent drop in highly touted Metallurgical Corp. of China, which went into free-fall on its first day of trading in Hong Kong.

Metallurgical, the building company famous for its work on Beijing's Bird's Nest Olympic stadium, began trading today at HK$6.4 and ended the day lower at HK$5.6. The stock debuted in China this past Monday when it reaped a 28 percent gain – not very impressive compared with the average first-day gains of other Chinese IPOS this year, but an increase nonetheless. Today, Metallurgical also lost 5.1 percent in Shanghai.