Mar.11 - China's stock markets raised 76.1 billion yuan (about 9.88 billion U.S. dollars) of capital in the first two months of 2007, or 26.86 percent of the total financing in 2006, according to the latest data from Wind Info., a leading financial data and software provider.

 

Initial public offering (IPO) financing reached 61.8 billion yuan, or 37.64 percent of the total IPO financing last year, statistics showed.

 

Refinancing amounted to 14.3 billion yuan, or 12 percent of that in 2006.

 

After a four-year recession, China's mainland stock markets rallied at the beginning of 2006, with the stock index continuously hitting new highs.

 

By March 7, a total of 206 out of the more than 1,400 Chinese listed companies had issued their annual reports.

 

The 206 companies, listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, registered combined business income of 372 billion yuan (46.5 billion U.S. dollars) last year, a year-on-year rise of 25 percent, according to their annual reports.

 

More than 97 percent of the 206 companies gained profits, with net profits totaling 23.51 billion yuan, up 89 percents.

 

On February 27, Chinese stocks suffered their biggest single-day fall in a decade, plunging 8.8 percent.

 

However, a new report from U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs takes a confident stance about the long-term prospects of China's stock market.

 

Goldman Sachs updated an earlier prediction to claim that the H share index would hit 12,000 points at the end of 2007 and argued that Chinese stocks would resume their upward movement in the second half of this year.