The Securities and Futures Commission's surplus jumped by 3.6 times to HK$356.9 million for the quarter ended December from a year ago, boosted by the growing turnover in the Hong Kong market.
Its income for the period rose 42.6 percent year-on-year to HK$928.8 million, while expenses inched down by 0.39 percent to HK$571.9 million.
As of December, a total of 119 initial public offering applications had been received from pre-profit biotech and specialist technology firms, of which 73 and 46 were from pre-profit biotech and specialist technology companies, SFC said in its quarterly report.
In the last quarter, the 10 IPOs of companies from these two sectors raised over HK$9 billion, up 8 times. Coupled with other new listings, the past quarter saw 48 IPOs, raising nearly HK$100 billion in total, representing more than 2 times growth.
To gatekeep listing applications and further solidify Hong Kong's position as a trusted fund-raising hub, the SFC issued a circular to IPO sponsors in January to raise concerns about deficiencies in listing documents and sponsor misconduct, the watchdog said, adding that it's now reviewing the sponsors' submissions as required by the circular and will commence thematic inspections of sponsors in the near term.
Hong Kong-domiciled funds saw net inflows soar 118.5 percent to HK$356.7 billion in 2025. As of December, their assets under management surged 38.3 percent to HK$2.28 trillion, and the total number increased 9.1 percent to 1,041.
Besides, the total market capitalisation of SFC-authorised ETFs and L&I products jumped 33.7 percent to HK$618.7 billion as of December. They also saw net inflows of HK$9.2 billion last quarter, while their share of Hong Kong's market turnover stood at 14 percent.
