Mainland companies raised more than US$18.9 billion on the Hong Kong stock exchange last year, up 141% on 2004, the China Securities and Regulatory Commission announced. The increase in money raised from both new and secondary shares is partly due to Beijing suspending offerings in Shanghai or Shenzhen in June while it converted non-tradable state-owned shares into tradable ones. Between January and May 2005, mainland markets had raised US$4.3 billion on the yuan-denominated A-share market, down from US$10.4 billion in 2004.