Shanghai exchange urges blue chips to list at home

Shanghai's stock market urged state firms to slow their march to overseas listings and stay at home to support development of local stock markets, where interest has been slipping in tandem with prices � down 25% over the last three months. Shanghai's stock exchange executive president, James Liu, said he didn�t know of any country which lists its domestic enterprises overseas before listing them at home. He said the list of China's leading companies was finite, noting that more overseas listings by potential blue chips would come at the expense of developing a domestic capital market. Huaneng Power International, China Mobile, China Life Insurance, PetroChina and China Telecommunications Corp all opted to list in Hong Kong over domestic markets. Shanghai's thin population of blue chips includes Shanghai Baoshan Iron & Steel and Yangtze Three Gorges Power Development.