China edged out the US as the world’s most popular venue for stock market listings in the first quarter, as the coronavirus outbreak ripped through the world’s two biggest economies.
Initial public offerings in the Chinese financial centres of Shanghai and Shenzhen raised more than $11bn in the first three months of the year across 50 deals, according to Dealogic data. That eclipsed the combined haul of the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq — which raised $10.5bn from 37 IPOs — for the first time since 2016.
Investors said Chinese IPOs had picked up in response to a powerful rally in local stocks after the markets reopened following the lunar new year in February. The CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed blue-chips has outperformed other global markets during a brutal first quarter, due to the global health crisis. The index is down 10 per cent for the year versus a loss of almost double that for Wall Street’s S&P 500.