Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Science and Technology Innovation Board: A Review

Abstract

This study reviews one of China’s newest stock markets: Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR market). China’s STAR market is among its newest stock market, which was officially launched in June 2019, and whose index was released in July 2020. It has attracted extensive attention from market players but almost no coverage from academia. This study fills in this gap by conducting a review of this stock market, including its institutional background, its regulations, and a series of indicators on corporate finance and equity pricing. This study finds that the launch of China’s STAR market has its institutional background, including helping economic transition, building multi-layer capital markets, responding to the deteriorating external environment against the background of the US-China trade and technology war, and deleveraging the Chinese economy. The STAR market has made some important reform initiatives in areas such as listing criteria, pricing mechanisms, and delisting. As a result, the STAR market is distinguished from China’s other stock. These unique features mean that the STAR market does not simply provide a new dataset, but may potentially provide more interesting insights than simple replications of previous studies. Most importantly of all, this study provides an agenda for future research. For practitioners, this study provides some new information on investing in this market.