Hong Kong's stock market became the ninth largest in the world and ranked third in total funds raised last year, the latest issue of BOCHK's Monthly Economic Review said.

Among the major records set in 2004, Hong Kong's total market capitalization surged to 6,695.9 billion HK dollars (858.45 billion US dollars), or 4.5 times of the GDP. Total turnover topped 3,974.1 billion HK dollars (509.5 billion US dollars), and the number of listed companies climbed to 1,096, the Review said in its January issue.

More records were broken in terms of trading value of H shares,derivative warrants, the number of newly listed derivative warrants and the number of total futures, options, stock options and Hang Seng index futures contracts, the review said.

However, the Hang Seng Index failed to make new high that stoodout among all these records, the note added. It is firstly due to the bear market that lasted for more than three years even though more companies were listed. And among the HSI's constituent stocks,11 or one third have been replaced during the period.

The review also pointed out that judging from their proportion in the overall market in terms of number, market cap, turnover andfunds raised, Chinese companies are playing an increasingly dominant role in Hong Kong's stock market. The note expected that more Chinese companies will continue to flock to Hong Kong to raise funds.

Source: Xinhua