Hong Kong’s push to attract overseas investment is showing positive results, the finance minister has said, citing the rise of the city’s exchange to the top of the global table for initial public offerings (IPOs) in the first half of the year and the stock market’s strong performance.

Noting the increasing interest in locally listed technology stocks, Chan also vowed to further strengthen overseas publicity to help investors better understand Hong Kong’s advantages and development opportunities.

“The stock market posted a 18 per cent gain last year. And the momentum continued to improve as we entered 2025,” he wrote in his weekly blog post.

“The market is generally optimistic about the performance of the Hong Kong stock and IPO [initial public offering] markets in the second half of the year.”

He said the latest data showed that HK$107 billion (US$13.6 billion) had been raised through Hong Kong’s 42 IPOs in the first six months of the year, putting the city’s exchange in first place for funds raised globally. The amount raised so far this year was also 22 per cent higher than the whole of 2024.