In the first half of this year,the IPO pace continued to tighten in a phased manner.The number of newly listed stocks and the amount of funds raised in the initial public offering both decreased by more than 70% year-on-year.In the review process,32 new IPO applications were accepted,while the number of terminated reviews increased significantly year-on-year.

As of June 30,2024,a total of 44 new stocks were listed in the A-share market in the first half of the year,raising 32.493 billion yuan in initial public offerings,a decrease of 74.57% and 84.5% respectively.The average initial public offering price-to-earnings ratio also dropped significantly compared to the same period last year.However,the average increase on the first day of listing was 136.05%,much higher than the same period last year.

In the IPO review process,with the continuous release of new IPO regulations,the acceptance and meeting review stages "broke the ice," while at the same time,companies planning to go public started a "withdrawal wave." In the first half of this year,a total of 287 companies planning to go public terminated the review.

Regarding the existing companies in the queue,according to an incomplete count by First Financial,as of June 30,there were still 412 companies planning to go public in the queue.

In the first half of the year,both the number of new stocks and the amount of funds raised decreased significantly,but the first-day performance was impressive.

In the first half of this year,a total of 44 new stocks were listed in the A-share market,while the same period last year saw 173 companies listed,which means that the number of listings in the first half of this year was only 25% of the same period last year.

Among these 44 new stocks,15 came from the ChiNext board,12 from the main board,10 from the Beijing Stock Exchange,and 7 from the STAR Market.

The amount of funds raised in the initial public offering also shrank significantly year-on-year.In the first half of this year,the total amount of funds raised by new stocks was 32.493 billion yuan,with only 10 new stocks raising more than 1 billion yuan.Among them,Yongxing Shares had the highest amount of funds raised in the initial public offering,at 2.43 billion yuan,followed by Aier Energy with 2.226 billion yuan.The other 8 new stocks raised between 1 billion yuan and 1.7 billion yuan.

In contrast,in the first half of last year,the total amount of funds raised by new stocks reached 209.677 billion yuan,with 68 new stocks raising more than 1 billion yuan,and 11 new stocks raising more than 3 billion yuan,with the highest amount of funds raised reaching 11.072 billion yuan.

Looking at the valuation,the average initial public offering price-to-earnings ratio (diluted) in the first half of this year also decreased significantly compared to last year.The average initial public offering price-to-earnings ratio in the first half of this year was 22.9 times,a decrease of 47.57% compared to 43.68 times in the same period last year.Additionally,it is worth noting that the average initial public offering price-to-earnings ratio of new stocks in the first half of last year was 13.48 times higher than the average price-to-earnings ratio of the industry at the time of listing,but the average initial public offering price-to-earnings ratio of new stocks in the first half of this year was lower than the average price-to-earnings ratio of the industry at the time of listing.The number of new shares has significantly decreased,and the valuations are relatively lower,which is reflected in the secondary market as a substantial increase in the prices of new shares.According to Wind data,the average increase on the first trading day of the 44 new shares listed in the first half of this year was 136.05%,which is much higher than the average increase of 37.84% on the first trading day of new shares listed in the same period last year.

Out of the 44 new shares listed on the first day,only one stock,Shanghai Hejing,fell,while the remaining 43 stocks all rose or remained stable.The first-day increase for 42 stocks exceeded 17%,and 36 stocks saw an increase of more than 50%.Among them,24 stocks had an increase of more than 100% on their first day of listing.Huicheng Vacuum's first-day increase reached 752.95%,while Li'an Technology's increase exceeded 300%.Kent Shares,Hongxin Technology,Zhonglun New Materials,Wanda Bearings,and Nova Nebula saw increases of more than 200%; 11 stocks had an increase between 50% and 100% on their first day.

Shanghai Hejing broke issue on its first day of listing,with a P/E ratio of 42.05 times at the initial offering,which is higher than the industry P/E ratio of 30.02 times at the time of the initial offering.The issue price was 22.66 yuan per share,and it fell by 6.31% on the first day of listing.

32 new applications were accepted,and 287 reviews were terminated.

While the number of new shares listed has decreased significantly,the number of new applications accepted and the review process were at a standstill for a period in the first half of this year,with a substantial increase in the number of withdrawals.

Before June of this year,the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges,as well as the Beijing Stock Exchange,had only accepted the listing applications of 2 companies,both from the Beijing Stock Exchange,with the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges having zero new acceptances.

On June 20th,the "zero acceptance" situation for IPOs in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges was broken.The A-share market accepted the IPO applications of 2 companies,one from the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market and the other from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's main board.Subsequently,the Beijing Stock Exchange also began accepting listing applications on June 21st,more than three months after the last disclosure of new acceptances.

In contrast to the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges,which only had one IPO application each,the Beijing Stock Exchange saw a surge in new acceptances after June 21st,with a total of 28 listing applications accepted over eight days.

This means that in the first half of this year,the Shanghai,Shenzhen,and Beijing stock exchanges accepted a total of 32 listing applications.Compared to the 590 applications accepted by the three major exchanges in the first half of 2023,there was a significant decrease.However,in March of last year,the full registration system was launched,and the Shanghai and Shenzhen main boards officially began to "welcome new members," leading to a significant increase in the number of new acceptances.

The review process was restarted after a hiatus of more than three months.After the IPO review committee meeting in February of this year,the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges held review committee meetings on May 16th and May 31st,respectively,indicating that the review committee meetings have returned to a normal schedule.Before the "ice-breaking" in the acceptance and meeting stages,IPO-related policies have also been continuously introduced,with increasingly clear positioning and direction.The new "Nine National Articles" issued in April this year clearly stipulate strict control over the access to listing,with specific measures including: raising the listing standards for the main board and the ChiNext board,improving the evaluation criteria for the scientific and technological attributes of the STAR Market; expanding the on-site inspection coverage of enterprises under review and related intermediaries; including pre-listing "clearance-style" dividend distribution and other situations in the negative list for listing; and strictly regulating the listing of spin-offs.Subsequently,the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) revised the guidelines for evaluating scientific and technological attributes (for trial implementation),and the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges also made corresponding revisions to the rules related to listing.

Compared with the new acceptance and meeting situations,the number of IPO terminations in the first half of this year has increased significantly.According to the information disclosed by the Shanghai,Shenzhen,and Beijing stock exchanges,a total of 287 companies planning to go public terminated the review in the first half of this year,including 115 applying to the Shanghai Stock Exchange,123 applying to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange,and 49 applying to the Beijing Stock Exchange.Among them,in June alone,110 companies planning to go public terminated the review.

These companies that withdrew their applications for listing have some commonalities,such as: financial data not meeting the new listing standards,a significant decline in performance in the most recent year; there are "clearance-style" dividend distribution situations; high concentration of equity,with issues of family absolute control; traditional consumer industries or companies in industries entering a downward cycle are restricted from listing; and strict regulation of the listing of spin-offs.