金融专业英语考试阅读指导(十七)

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Listed firms may be allowed to sell shares
- a$ n2 U, f5 H0 o* H    The country's regulators will consider allowing listed firms to sell shares as a first step toward lifting its suspension on new IPOs in domestic markets, but no timetable has been set, domestic media reported Monday.　China is proceeding with a series of market reforms aimed at reviving its shares markets, which remain mired in a four-year slump.
5 y9 p- Q0 E9 T    In mid-2005, China suspended new IPOs in domestic markets in an effort to prop up sagging stock prices, weighed down by investor concerns over the share-reform plan to sell more than US$250 billion in State-held shares.
- L0 _9 _& N" f4 ]. m) g1 Y! Q8 Q    "We will look at allowing listed companies to sell shares before approving any new IPOs," the Financial News quoted Shang Fulin, the top securities regulator, as saying at a conference.
    Reforms in state-held shares need to be built upon solid capital markets, said Shang, adding that the last mile of reforms would be the most difficult.
  Y0 o" V# ^0 M% H  |9 i7 S    Last month, China scrapped capital gains taxes for foreign stock investors.
    The government is intensifying efforts to lure foreign cash into its main stock market, via a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor （QFII） scheme that lets overseas firms invest in primary stock and debt markets.
  I$ I" c' d/ P  q) k; q7 q; i    The index was Asia's worst performing major market benchmark stock index in both 2005 and 2004.
    While trying to reform inefficient capital markets to give domestic firms another fund-raising option besides banks, China is also trying to enhance corporate transparency and boost profitability.
/ n* T$ g2 P( y; A' \8 }% @/ \    Shang's comments come after a leading economic official said Saturday that efforts to revive its sickly stock markets are likely to work only if "poor quality" listed companies are eliminated from trading.
! k+ {4 c* {" d0 }    "Raising the quality of China's listed companies is the only permanent cure that can ensure public investors' fundamental interests," said Cheng Siwei, a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress