Mainland bourses eye huge IPOs

The mainland stock market will become one of the world's most attractive financial centers this year in terms of new share issues, or initial public offerings (IPOs), financial analysts have said.

In the second half of the year, in particular, the Chinese mainland stock market (combining the exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen) is expected to raise 1.1 trillion yuan ($144 billion) - an eight-fold increase over the first half.

According to Bloomberg, the 44 IPOs in the A-share market raised 124 billion yuan ($16.5 billion) in the first half, compared with 106 IPOs on the New York Stock Exchange Group (merged with Euronext), which raised $46 billion.