HKEX File Photo

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) witnessed a rare spectacle as six companies listed simultaneously on Tuesday, the second to last trading day of 2025. On the same day, three companies debuted on the A-share market, while China's science- and technology-focused equity market welcomed its 600th listing. 

Analysts said that the year-end IPO surge signals investors' confidence in China's capital market, mainly driven by advancements in technologies.

The six Hong Kong-listed companies are technology- and new consumption-related: artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery firm Insilico Medicine, digital twin solution provider 51WORLD, home embodied AI robotic systems provider OneRobotics, Chinese skincare brand Shanghai Forest Cabin Cosmetics Group, or Lin Qingxuan, leading real-time data infrastructure provider Shenzhen Xunce Technology, and prefabricated steel structure building services provider USAS Building System (Shanghai) Co, according to public listing information posted on the HKEX's website. 

Insilico Medicine stole the show as it opened 45.53 percent higher on Tuesday. 51WORLD followed with a 14.75 percent gain at the opening and closed 13.2 percent higher, according to the HKEX.

On December 22, the HKEX announced that Hong Kong had led global IPO fundraising in 2025. As of December 19, 106 companies had listed on the HKEX, raising HK$274.6 billion ($35.3 billion), far exceeding the HK$87.5 billion raised in 2024.

In 2025, the Hong Kong market received 114 completed IPOs that raised about HK$286.3 billion. The 2025 estimate represented a 63 percent increase in the number of listings and a more than twofold leap in proceeds. 

Nineteen A+H listings are also set to have contributed about half of total proceeds, according to a 2025 review and 2026 outlook on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong's IPO markets by Deloitte China released on December 18.

"The increased volume and higher prices of mainland enterprises' listings in Hong Kong reflect the profound changes in China's industrial structure," Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Figures from financial data provider Wind showed that among the more than 100 companies listing in Hong Kong in 2025, more than 70 percent operate in information technology, biomedicine, new energy, automobiles, and advanced manufacturing. 

"In the past, internet and consumer companies dominated Hong Kong listings, reflecting growth driven by demographic dividends. Today, the rise of hard tech and biomedicine signals China's shift to a 'technology dividend' era," Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The clustering of these listings reflects capital flowing toward high-value-added sectors - a microcosm of China's transformation from the "world factory" to an "innovation engine," said Wang.

The A-share market also experienced an IPO boom, which analysts said was accelerated by June announcements from the securities regulator introducing the "1+6" reform policies for the STAR Market (officially known as the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board, a Chinese science- and technology-focused equities market).

According to Wind data, as of Monday, the Chinese mainland's three major exchanges - Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen - had accepted 244 IPO applications in 2025, of which 180 came after the June policy announcement.

On Tuesday, the STAR market also welcomed its 600th listed company - Maxone Semiconductor (Suzhou) Co, a manufacturer and provider of IC wafer test probe cards, pushing its market capitalization above 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion), according to media reports.

"Global capital has continuously flowed into A-shares and Hong Kong stocks throughout 2025, driven by China's breakthroughs in technological innovation, which have significantly boosted international investors' confidence in Chinese tech," said Yang.

Yang said that in 2026, A-shares and Hong Kong stocks are likely to extend the bull market. 

Yang pointed out that the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) prioritizes scientific and technological self-reliance and the fostering of new quality productive forces in frontier fields such as AI, quantum information, life sciences, deep-space exploration, and deep-sea technologies. This will accelerate the commercialization of achievements such as brain-computer interfaces and controllable nuclear fusion, which are also expected to have a good performance in the capital markets in 2026.

The Hong Kong IPO market is likely to set another fundraising record in 2026 of at least HK$300 billion, the Deloitte China report showed.

Hong Kong's IPO market is on track to maintain its status as the world's top fundraising venue in 2026, said UBS, with more than HK$300 billion likely to be raised from 150 to 200 IPOs, according to media reports.