China’s securities regulator, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), has said it plans to approve one hundred IPOs from June through to the end of 2014. The CSRC controls the flow of new listings on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A share markets.
CSRC’s chairman Xiao Gang has said it would arrange new listings at an orderly pace and provided a timetable detailing a schedule for the plan.
In April 2014, the CSRC issued a list of 46 companies applying for initial public offerings. That was the first preliminary information disclosure about pre-listed companies since the regulator stopped new listings in October 2012 amid bearish sentiment, market volatility and a sense that more listed companies would lead to share price falls elsewhere in the index. Since the beginning of 2014, it has allowed firms on the waiting list (which had risen to approximately 600 companies) to carry out public offerings.
On 9 May , China’s State Council published guidelines on the development of the country’s capital market. Whilst it did not contain any concrete measures, it gave the impression that the government was ready to act promptly to support the stock markets.