Shares in China Railway Group jumped 69 per cent on their first day of trading on the Shanghai market on Monday, allaying fears about an imminent collapse in this year’s $90bn boom in listings of Chinese companies.

The debut of state-owned China Railway, one of the largest construction contractors in the world, was considered an important barometer of investor sentiment after lacklustre listings of two Chinese companies in Hong Kong over the past fortnight. Shares in the group, which raised $3bn, rose from an offer price of Rmb4.8 to close at Rmb8.09, within the range of forecasts made by analysts.