"The stock market has become a new platform for more and more Chinese citizens to share a chunk of the increasing wealth of the country," Hou said.
Last year, 447 billion yuan (US$ 61.2 billion) was raised through initial public offerings (IPOs) on Shanghai's A-share market., which was 2.7 times the amount of 2006.
"The surge in IPO activity in China is a clear reflection of the growth in the Chinese economy and the confidence investors have about putting their money into China," said Gil Forer, global director of IPO Initiatives at Ernst & Young, a global professional services firm.
Forer said the IPO pipeline for 2008 looked healthy, especially across the emerging markets, despite ongoing market uncertainty. In China alone, some 330 billion yuan would be raised through A-share listings in Shanghai, according to a report by Ernst & Young.
