THE MARKETS

　　NASDAQ Debut

　　China’s travel search engine Qunar has been listed on the Nasdaq， at $15 a share， as of November 1.

　　The Beijing-based company， under the ticker symbol of QUNR， saw its share price skyrocket 107.93 percent to $31.19 shortly after it began trading on that day.

　　Qunar， founded in May 2005 and registered in the Cayman Islands， plans to raise about $167 million by offering about 11.11 million American depositary shares (ADSs). Capital raised from the initial public offering will be used to scale up the company’s investment in technology， infrastructure， and research and development， as well as to strengthen its marketing input， in order to meet future demands for mergers and acquisitions， the company said at a press briefing held in New York.

　　The company， which has China’s search engine Baidu as its biggest shareholder， reported $58.46 million in revenue from January to June， up 75 percent year on year， with 88 percent of revenue generated by the pay-per-click model.

　　Rising Gold Output

　　China is set to maintain its position as the world’s top bullion producer for the seventh consecutive year in the face of estimations that it will produce a record-high 430 tons of gold this year， according to China Gold Group Corp.

　　Gold output in China could rise 6.7 percent from the 403 tons produced in 2012， according to Du Haiqing， the group’s vice general manager. During a mining conference in Tianjin on November 4， he said that production during the first eight months of the year had already reached 270 tons.

　　Gold consumption in China has also been growing and is expected to exceed 1，000 tons this year， an increase of 20 percent from 2012， according to Du.