Hong Kong ranked first globally in terms of initial public offering (IPO) fundraising in 2009, with 73 IPOs raising a total of 243.9 billion HK dollars (31.3 billion U.S. dollars), said Paul Chow, chief executive of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited.

Speaking at a media luncheon on Tuesday, Chow said the Hong Kong stock market relied heavily on mainland firms.

Forty-eight of the 73 newly listed firms were from the mainland. They raised 201.2 billion HK dollars (25.8 billion U.S. dollars), or 83 percent of the total raised through new listings on the Hong Kong market in 2009.

"It is very important that we further work on to attract issuers from ...the mainland to seek listing in Hong Kong," Chow said.

By the end of 2009, there were 524 mainland firms listed in Hong Kong. Their market capitalization totaled 10.4 trillion HK dollars (1.3 billion U.S. dollars), representing 58 percent of the total market capitalization. The mainland firms had 72 percent of the average daily market turnovers in 2009.

Chow said the Hong Kong exchange and its mainland counterparts can be complementary given that they can serve the needs of different firms.

The outgoing chief executive said he was confident that his successor Charles Li, who had worked for international investment banks in Beijing, Hong Kong and New York, would lead the Hong Kong exchange to further successes.

Shanghai, with a total of 14.0 billion U.S. dollars raised through new listings in the first eleven months of 2009, ranked second worldwide. New York followed with a total of 13.7 billion U. S. dollars in the first eleven months.

Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers recently said it expected 60 new listings on the Hong Kong stock market in 2010 to raise a total of 300 billion HK dollars (38.5 billion U.S. dollars) , including industry giants like UC Rusal.