While 2010 marks an unusual year for China's sizzling initial public offerings (IPO), the number of IPOs will stabilize in 2011 - with more small companies expected to get listed and less funds raised, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) press conference Tuesday.

PwC projected the number of IPOs on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges will reach 320 in 2011, while total funds to be raised are estimated at about 400 billion yuan ($60.41 billion), modest compared with last year.

In 2010, IPO listings in China was up 253 percent to hit 349 companies, while total funds raised grew 155 percent over 2009 to top 478.3 billion yuan ($72.23 billion). China therefore became the world's No.1 IPO fund raiser last year, exceeding the US and the UK.

With the robust listings in 2010, China's A-share market also took second place in terms of stock market size with capitalization of 26.43 trillion yuan ($4.00 trillion), only after the US markets.

But the significant growth seen in 2010 was unique due to listings of two huge companies, said Feng Heping, PwC's China Beijing lead partner.

Agricultural Bank of China and China Everbright Bank's IPOs alone accounted for 16 percent of total IPO funds raised in 2010 in the Chinese A-share market.

Also, many companies postponed their IPO listing from 2009 to 2010, in expectation of a better market.

Though ranking forefront on IPO numbers and funds, China's A-share market performance for 2010 was reportedly one of the poorest globally after markets in debt-laden Greece and Spain.

The weak performance was not consistent with China's strong economic growth, said PwC's Feng Hep-ing. He told the Global Times that he believed the poor showing was due to uncertainty surrounding policies addressing inflationary concerns.

Another uncertainty this year is the launch of the international board that allows foreign companies to list on Chinese stock markets.

But for this year, the number of new listings and IPO values will be "normalized" compared with last year, Feng noted.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) especially those in high-tech and innovation areas will be the key players for IPOs in the Chinese A-share market, he said. This will be in alignment with the government's efforts to restructure the economy and encourage the development of privately held SMEs, PwC's Feng said.

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