China to launch Nasdaq-style board in late October

China will launch its long-awaited Nasdaq-style ChiNext board in
Shenzhen at the end of October, state media reported Monday. A new
round of firms seeking to list on the board will publish their
prospectuses for initial public offerings after the week-long
National Day holiday, which ends on October 8 , the official
Securities Times reported. These firms, along with 19 companies that
have already released their prospectuses, will make their debut on
the board in the last 10 days of October, the newspaper said, citing
an unnamed "authoritative" source. Regulators hope the new market
will help fuel start-ups and other companies with high-growth
potential in the world's third-largest economy, following the example
of Wall Street's Nasdaq. But there have also been worries that the new
board, which attracted strong interest from investors, may be
diverting funds from the main boards and drag down stock prices. The
first batch of 10 firms, which set their IPO prices and took
subscriptions last week, aim to raise up to 6.68 billion yuan (977.5
million dollars) -- more than double the 3.16 billion previously
planned.