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SOEs now have a wider choice of listing markets; and more SOEs listed overseas will return to the mainland market, Li Rongrong, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said yesterday.

At the same time, SASAC will try its best to make sure that listed SOEs will live up to the expectations of investors at home and abroad.

Li did not specify how many large SOEs will launch domestic initial public offerings (IPOs) this year but said he was "certain" that some overseas-listed SOEs will accelerate the pace of going public back home.

China Life Insurance, which is listed on the New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges, has won the approval of the securities regulator to issue shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange next month.

The country's biggest life insurer is planning to raise as much as 25.5 billion yuan (US$3.23 billion), the second-largest public offering in the A-share market after Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's biggest lender.

In October, ICBC raised about US$21 billion in a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, where the offer was oversubscribed 25 times.

China's benchmark stock index rose 0.99 per cent to an all-time high last Thursday, following reforms in the capital market and inflows of funds from local and foreign investors.

The situation has prompted many to think that for the first time in a decade, the stock market is able to reflect the booming economy.

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