China's SME board, a sub-board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange for the listing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has seen fast growth since its launch a decade ago, figures from the bourse showed on Sunday.
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A total of 719 companies are now listed on the SME board, with a market value of 3.81 trillion CNY (618.5 billion USD).
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The number of listed companies was 19 times that in 2004, and the market value was more than 90 times that of ten years ago.
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The board's market capitalization now accounts for over 40 percent of the total market value of all the listed companies on the Shenzhen bourse.
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The SME board was inaugurated on May 27, 2004 to let China's smaller companies take advantage of the stock market and get much-needed capital.
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The main boards of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, as in other countries, have been primarily focused on large companies.
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Over the past decade, SMEs got a funding of more than 700 billion CNY from the sub-board.
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With an emphasis on private and high-tech firms, the SME board has become a unique and indispensable segment in China's multi-tier capital market system, according to the bourse.Â