The Hong Kong Stock Exchange has seen a sharp rise in listing activity over the past year, buoyed by a growing pipeline of applicants and renewed investor interest. The exchange said the city emerged as the world’s top IPO venue in 2025, overtaking Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, long viewed across Asia as benchmark destinations for public listings.
The rebound is reflected across multiple measures. For the cash market, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), the exchange’s operator, said average daily turnover in the first 11 months of 2025 reached USD 249.8 billion, up 89.5% year-on-year, according to a statement released January 16.
IPO activity has been a major driver. Hong Kong hosted 119 new listings in 2025, a 67.6% increase from 71 a year earlier. Those deals raised USD 285.8 billion in total, more than triple the roughly USD 88 billion recorded in 2024. Four of the year’s listings ranked among the world’s top ten IPOs, including the USD 5.3 billion debut of Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the largest in Hong Kong last year.
Companies already listed on HKEX also returned to the market in force. Follow-on offerings totaled USD 66 billion, up 136.6% from USD 27.9 billion in 2024, the exchange said, citing Dealogic data.
Describing the process of supporting the influx of deals as “gratifying,” HKEX CEO Bonnie Chan said momentum was likely to continue. Speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Chan pointed to the pace of activity early in the year: just three weeks in, the exchange had already listed 11 companies.
Among them were Biren Technology, MiniMax, and Z.ai (Zhipu AI), highlighting a growing push among mainland companies to tap public markets as investor interest increasingly aligns with Beijing’s longer-term support for advanced technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, under the country’s latest five-year plan.
China’s 15th five-year plan, covering the 2026–2030 period, places emphasis on innovation-led growth, industrial upgrading, and greater tech self-reliance. These priorities typically have an impact on corporate strategy and investor focus.
Chan told CNBC the new listings had already raised close to USD 4 billion, with more capital expected to follow, adding that HKEX has received nearly 50 new listing applications, with hundreds more in the queue. Prospective issuers include Wancheng Group, operator of Haoxianglai, and Busy Ming, both leaders in mainland China’s discount retail segment that are expected to complete their Hong Kong listings this year.
“There’s a lot of very positive things to look forward to,” Chan said.
The surge in activity coincides with a broader shift in global investor sentiment amid rising geopolitical uncertainty. Since US President Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025, Washington has taken a more confrontational stance on trade, including a “reciprocal tariff” policy that unsettled public markets last year.
More recently, Trump introduced new tariffs on eight European countries as part of efforts to press for US control over Greenland, an autonomous territory administered by Denmark and rich in largely untapped natural resources, including rare earth elements. China dominates rare earth mining and is a major exporter of the materials, and briefly imposed export controls last October before suspending them for at least a year following an agreement.
RELATED ARTICLE
The timing has reinforced a broader recalibration in global markets, particularly around where companies choose to raise capital. Chan said Hong Kong could stand to benefit: for global businesses wary of geopolitical risk in both the US and mainland China, the city offers an alternative market with a stable currency, a well-capitalized banking system, and openness to innovation in areas such as fintech.
Policy measures have also helped revive the IPO pipeline, including streamlined pathways for mainland A-share companies and simplified requirements for secondary listings. Deloitte China estimates that 19 Hong Kong IPOs in 2025 were dual listings by A-listed companies, contributing meaningfully to funds raised.
“Hong Kong’s IPO market will continue to face the influence of broader macroeconomic and geopolitical developments,” wrote Edward Au, managing partner at Deloitte China, citing factors including US monetary policy, global capital flows, and measures supporting Chinese companies’ overseas expansion and domestic demand growth.
Beyond mainland issuers, the rally is also drawing interest from international companies. Singapore-headquartered biotech firm MiRXES debuted on HKEX last May, while the exchange has broadened the range of overseas bourses it recognizes for secondary listings. In March, HKEX added the Stock Exchange of Thailand to its approved list, expanding access for companies across Southeast Asia and beyond.