Beijing has for the first time released the names of 515 companies seeking approval for initial public offerings, in an effort to make the system more transparent.
The list was published on the website of the market watchdog, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and will be updated weekly. Commission chairman Guo Shuqing, who took up his post late last year, has vowed to protect investors' interests by improving the existing system.
A flood of high-priced new share offerings have been blamed for sharp market downturns in the past two years as they drained liquidity from listed stocks.
Millions of mainland investors had expected Guo to slow the rate of approvals to bolster the weak market.
The top regulator said the commission planned to fine-tune the existing offering mechanism to ensure that only quality firms raised funds at a reasonable price.
Currently, listing hopefuls set prices through offline subscriptions available only to institutional and corporate investors.
