Chinese stock markets take in 830.6 billion yuan in banner year of IPO mania

Money collected by the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets hit 830.63 billion yuan (113.32 billion U.S. dollars) as of Dec. 21.

The amount was nearly four-fold that of all last year, fuelled largely by mania for investing in initial public offerings (IPOs). Purchases of subsequent share offerings and corporate bonds added to the total.

The funds raised over the year were estimated to exceed 841.49 billion yuan. The figure was equivalent to the total amount collected by the two bourses in the first 14 years since their late 1990 establishment.

More than half the funds were raised through 120 IPOs introduced this year. They raked in about 61 billion U.S. dollars, ranking first in world markets.

The IPO funds collected in the emerging market over the year outshadowed floated money in the American capital market by 10 billion U.S. dollars. The gap was even larger when compared with the British market.

More large IPOs were expected next year from numerous Chinese central administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In addition, domestic companies that had listed in Hong Kong were encouraged by officials to also go public in the mainland market.

Of the 43 Hong Kong-listed SOEs, 13 had not offered mainland shares. They included such domestic giants as China Telecom and Dongfeng Motor Group.

This year, additional share offerings of listed companies grew two-fold. A total of 311.9 billion yuan was raised through 133 private placements and 24 subsequent offerings as of last Friday. Another 242 companies also planned to issue additional shares.

The comparatively weak bond offerings have seen the issue of two types of new bonds this year - the corporate bond and bonds with attached warrants. They each raised 20 billion yuan.