Back to the future. China, source of some of the world's biggest initial public offerings in recent years, is preparing to unleash another blockbuster. China Construction Engineering Corp's planned IPO is expected to raise about $6bn. This would be China's fourth largest IPO and the biggest in the world so far this year behind Visa of the US.

Market dynamics, however, could not be more different from last year, when IPOs raised $63bn, according to Dealogic. That year, the Shanghai composite index of renminbi- denominated “A” shares almost doubled. Selling stock was like handing candy to children: oversubscription levels were massive and investors were rewarded with an average 150 per cent gain on the first day of trading. This year, by contrast, the index is down about 40 per cent and daily turnover has slumped.

Chinese authorities, exploiting the power granted to regulators in what is still – when required – a command economy, have sought to prop up prices. Brakes put in place as the market roared ahead last year, including the introduction of a share trading tax, were swiftly dismantled on the way down. In April, authorities moved to curb sales of state-owned shares, partially unwinding reforms of state-owned shares in 2005.

Meanwhile, authorities are aiming to pique interest by introducing activities such as margin lending. The orchestrated balance between supply and demand, however, is imperfect. When the market was resurgent, the fledgling fund management industry found it easy to attract investors: Z-Ben, a fund management consultancy, says fund managers were able to pull in $1.5bn in a day; now it takes a month to raise just a fraction of that. Yet some 50 new funds have been approved so far this year, more than were approved in the whole of last year. The vast majority of these are equity-focused. Regulators have more tweaking to do before Shanghai regains its allure

回到未来。作为近年来一些全球最大规模首次公开发行(IPO)发源地的中国，正在筹备另一家巨无霸公司的上市。中国建筑股份有限公司(China Construction Engineering Corp)计划进行的IPO有望筹集约60亿美元。这将是中国第四大规模的IPO，也将是今年以来仅次于美国Visa的全球最大规模IPO。

然而，市场格局已与去年截然不同。Dealogic数据显示，IPO募资额去年达到630亿美元。去年，追踪以人民币计价的A股表现的上证综合指数几乎上涨一倍。出售股票就像请小孩吃糖一样容易：超额认购率非常之高，投资者在股票上市首日的平均回报率为150%。相比之下，上证综合指数今年下跌了40%，日成交量也明显萎缩。

中国经济在必要时仍是指令性经济。中国政府利用这种经济赋予监管机构的权力，寻求推高股价。随着股市下跌，去年市场飙升之际大幅调高股票交易印花税等各项制动措施被迅速拆除。今年4月，中国政府对国有股的销售进行了限制，在一定程度上放慢了2005年开始的国有股改革的脚步。

与此同时，中国政府希望通过出台股票贷款等措施，激起投资者的买盘兴趣。然而，政府策划的供需均衡并不完美。在市场复苏时，新兴的基金管理行业发现，吸引投资者很容易：基金管理顾问公司Z-Ben表示，当时基金管理公司一天就能募集到15亿美元资金，如今，1个月募集的资金也远远没有那么多。但是，中国今年迄今已批准成立了50只新基金，比去年全年还多，而且其中多数是股票型基金。监管机构还需要进行更多调整，才能让上海股市恢复其吸引力。

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