Tech-heavy market outshines big board

The Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) has outperformed the main board in terms of money raised, according to chairman Lo Ka-shui.

About 57 per cent of the amount of initial public offering (IPO) funds raised on the stock market came from the GEM, Mr Lo said.

As of Monday, HK$7.99 billion of IPO funds were raised on the GEM this year, compared with HK$5.85 billion for the main board.

Companies were increasingly growing interested in the technology-heavy GEM market because they could get much higher valuations, Mr Lo said.

'The GEM's valuation for dotcoms is already on par with Nasdaq,' he said.

Seventeen companies are listed on the GEM, and another 26 have applied for listing.