China’s stock markets raise US$113 bil. in ’07

The total amount, which was only for the year up to Dec. 21, was nearly a four-fold increase over the money raised on the country’s stock markets last year, Xinhua news agency said.

According to estimates, the total amount raised for the entire year is expected to exceed 841 billion yuan, it said.

This is equivalent to what was raised by the two bourses in their first 14 years of existence from 1990, it added.

More than half the funds raised this year were through 120 IPOs, as investors jumped at new flotations with a vengeance, disregarding warnings that an ongoing share bubble is destined to burst eventually.

Chinese IPOs this year raised about US$61 billion, far outperforming the U.S. capital market which earned US$10 billion in new flotations, Xinhua said.

China’s stock markets are in the midst of an ongoing boom with the Shanghai bourse up 95.60 percent for the year as of Wednesday, while last year the benchmark index rose 130.32 percent.

According to Xinhua, more large IPOs are expected next year from numerous Chinese state-owned enterprises.

Meanwhile, 13 large state companies already listed on the Hong Kong bourse, such as China Telecom and Dongfeng Motor Group, are being encouraged to seek mainland listings in the future, it said.

Notable IPOs in 2007 include PetroChina which became the world’s biggest flotation when it raised nearly US$9 billion in the sale of four billion shares in early November.

Enthusiasm for China’s largest oil refiner however faded quickly with the stock trading at around 30 yuan per share in recent weeks after touching highs of around 48 yuan immediately after the IPO.

Other top IPOs include China Shenhua, one of the nation’s largest coal producers, which raised a record 66.58 billion yuan on the Shanghai bourse in late September and China Construction Bank, one of China’s four top commercial lenders, which raised more than 58 billion yuan.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email