Among the 190 listed firms held by China's central state-owned enterprises (SOEs), 179 had finished or started share reforms by Nov. 30, Li Rongrong, director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, told a press conference on Tuesday.

China has ordered nearly 1,290 listed firms last year to reform their share structure by selling previously non-tradable shares by the end of this year in an effort to revive the capital market and improve its financial security.

When asked whether or not the remaining 11 firms can complete the shareholder reforms as scheduled, Li said the reform had been going on pretty smoothly.

"We notice the difficulties faced by some SOEs and we propose that SOEs should push forward the reform in an innovative way," he said, without elaborating.

Previous reports said that more than 1,160 firms have completed the reform. Many of the remaining 130 or so have serious problems such as huge losses or non-tradable equity that has been used as collateral or frozen by the courts or banks.

Stimulated by a rising Renminbi, the split share reform and the listing of a number of large indigenous companies including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the nation's stock markets have been in rambunctious form this year.

Driven by banking, real estate, and wine-making stocks, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index broke the 2,300 mark on Monday, closing at an all-time high of 2,332.43 points.

The Component Stock Index on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange closed at 6,393.33 points, up 224.84 points from the previous close.

Turnover on the two stock markets also climbed, with 53.88 billion yuan (about 6.74 billion U.S. dollars) on the Shanghai bourse and 30.11 billion yuan (about 3.76 billion U.S. dollars) on the Shenzhen bourse.

Li said that he was "sure" many large SOEs listed overseas, lured by the opportunities of the bullish domestic stock markets, "would seek going public back home".

Source: Xinhua