The mainland's securities regulator has slowed the review procedure for initial public offerings following a fund-raising spree on the A-share market - an apparent move to avoid an influx of fresh equity amid a downturn.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission will hear only one IPO application this week, from Great Wall Motor, according to the review committee's announcement.
This will be a rare situation since the regulator reopened the IPO market in July 2009 after a 10-month hiatus. Normally the committee will review about eight IPOs a week.
A total of 17 IPO applications were reviewed last week, including a large-size offering by state-owned dam builder Sinohydro Group which plans to raise 17.3 billion yuan (HK$20.94 billion) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the mainland's largest this year.
The regulator was not available for comment yesterday.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.5 per cent last week before it dropped another 0.9 per cent in the first three trading days this week. The indicator closed at 2,678.49 yesterday, 4.6 per cent off last year's close.
