Private Information, Investor Sentiment, and IPO Pricing: Which Institutional Investors Are Better Informed?

We provide new empirical evidence that certain institutional investors have private information that they use to profit from initial public offerings (IPOs). In this study, we analyze the bidding information related to five types of institutional investors in China's ChiNext market to examine the impact of private information and investor sentiment on first-day IPO returns. The results show that private information and institutional investor sentiment are positively correlated with initial returns. The analysis of the different institutional sectors shows that some securities companies may profit from IPOs by using private information. It was also found that qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) may be at an informational disadvantage on the Chinese stock market.