Bank of China said on Thursday it is priced at 3.08 yuan (38.5 U.S. cents) per share for an imminent trading in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, raising a cumulative 20 billion yuan (2.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the Chinese inland's biggest-ever share offering.

The price falls within an indicative range of 3.05 to 3.15 yuan announced by the bank earlier this week, and tracks its 2.95 Hong Kong dollars pricing for shares that were already offered in Hong Kong in late May.

More than 6.49 billion yuan-denominated shares, or A-shares, will be issued, the bank said in a statement.

Bank of China shares were open to institutional subscription Monday and Tuesday.

Fund companies, stock brokerages, insurers, pension funds and other big investors went all out for a portion of the bank's shares, only successfully obtaining 6.56 billion yuan worth of shares with more than 120 billion yuan of funds frozen, reflecting a hotly awaited demand for the giant state lender.

Public investors are allowed to apply for BOC shares on Friday, which many market analysts say would also meet strong demand. A road show is held on Thursday, and the trading is expected to begin on July 5.

Chinese shares rose to a two-week high Wednesday on bullish market hopes.

In Hong Kong, Bank of China has raised an equivalent of 11.2 billion U.S. dollars in the world's fourth biggest initial public offering.

China is overhauling its state-owned, debt-laden banking sector prior to fully opening its financial market to foreign banks by the end of this year under a WTO commitment.

The government has moved to write off the major banks' bad debts, restructure them into shareholding companies, invite strategic foreign investors and allow them to go public.

Of the "big four" state banks, China Construction Bank took the lead to go public in Hong Kong last October.

Editor: Donald