The exchange said it has no plan for mergers and acquisitions

BEIJING - Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Chinese mainland's largest bourse, plans to attract 50 new listings each year during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), the exchange's president said on Wednesday.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange Building. The world's fifth-largest stock exchange by capitalization saw 26 new listings in 2010 and its total market value reached 18.5 trillion yuan. [Photo / Bloomberg News]

The bourse's plan is in line with the central government's call to substantially expand the volume of the country's capital market and to raise the proportion of direct financing.

"We will work to attract more high-quality companies to float shares on our bourse to push the development of the blue-chip market," Geng Liang, president of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, said at a news briefing in Beijing.

The exchange, the world's fifth-largest stock exchange by capitalization, saw 26 new listings last year and its total market value has reached 18.5 trillion yuan ($2.82 trillion), a sixfold increase from the 2005 figure, according to Geng.

Meanwhile, China is expected to further open its capital market by launching the long-awaited international board, which will allow overseas companies to raise funds on the A-share market.

Geng said there is no timetable for the planned board but the stock exchange has so far completed 80 percent of the preparation.

The international board is part of China's plan to internationalize its currency by allowing foreign firms to issue stocks denominated in yuan and develop Shanghai into a global financial center.

Geng said the stock exchange is also actively pushing the development of the country's bond market by allowing listed commercial banks to trade bonds on the exchange.

"We are also in discussion with the Ministry of Finance to allow investors to trade treasury bonds on the stock exchange," he added.

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The bourse will also introduce new financial products such as cross-border exchange-traded funds (ETF) this year, but Geng declined to reveal the timetable for the launch of the product. It was reported that the bourse is proposing as many as 20 exchange-traded funds this year.

When asked about the stock exchange's plan to cooperate with foreign bourses, Geng said the exchange has no plan for mergers and acquisitions or forming alliances with overseas stock exchanges.

The bourse recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Brazilian stock exchange BM&F Bovespa, South Amercia's largest bourse.

The deal has led to speculation about the cross-listing of stocks, which would give Brazilian stocks access to liquidity in China.

But Geng refuted the speculation, saying that the cross-listing of stocks is not part of the agreement.