The average market value of Chinese listed companies in 2007 rose 235 percent year-on-year to stand at 21.2 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion), the China stock market value management and research center said in a report in Beijing Wednesday.

The report said that the Chinese stock market had become the fourth largest in the world after the US, Japan and the UK. Its total market value increased by 269 percent in 2007.

A total of 933 State-owned enterprises saw their capitalization increase by 247 percent.

Of 564 private companies, State assets accounted for 23 percent of their total market value, which generated 1.61 trillion yuan in 2007, up 454 percent.

The report also said the mining industry was the fastest growing industry, with a ten-fold increase.

The number of companies with capitalization under one billion yuan was down to 56 in 2007 from 424 a year earlier, down 746 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2008)