Timeline

1984: Shanghai Feilo Acoustics Co Ltd, an electronic equipment manufacturer, issues China's first stocks in Shanghai.

1990: The Shanghai Stock Exchange is established.

1999: The Securities Act comes into force and the State Council allows insurance companies to enter the securities market.

2002: Foreign investors are allowed to invest in the A-share market under the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program. The first joint-venture securities brokerage and fund company is established.

2005: The regulator initiates national share structure reform in a bid to change its split equity ownership into fully floated share structures. A ban on new IPOs is imposed to curb the slump and allow more than $200 billion of mostly State-owned equity to be converted to tradable shares.

2007: The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index hits record high of 6,124 points and market capitalization reaches 21 trillion yuan, surpassing the country's GDP.

2009: China's Nasdaq-style start-up board ChiNext is launched.

2010: Trading of stock index futures begins, which provides investors with a tool to short market risks for the first time.

May 2011: Shang Fulin, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, says China will soon launch an international board, to allow foreign companies to raise funds in the A-share market.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page32)