Beijing Stock Exchange Photo:Chi Jingyi/GT

The first trading week of the newly launched Beijing Stock Exchange (BSE) from Monday to Friday has overall met market expectations with additional 340,000 qualified investors rushing into the bourse, the Securities Daily reported Saturday.

The market volume was significantly boosted in the past week on investors' rising enthusiasm about the exchange, a third addition to China's A-share market.

Prices of 10 new stocks rose overall, and the 71 listings that migrated from an over-the-counter market have performed well.

About 100 shares are expected to trade on the new market by the year's end and trade-eligible investors are slated to top 10 million, 2.5 times the current number, according to market participants, envisioning the possibility that the new exchange will welcome overseas-listed Chinese shares and even revive plans for an international board for foreign firms to raise funds.

"On the whole, the BSE has achieved good results in the first week of its opening," Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund Management Co, told the Global Times on Saturday.

"It is expected that with the number of listed companies on the BSE on the rise in the future, its development trend will also become more stable," said Yang.

Merely 75 days after its announcement, the BSE's launch indicates an "imperative" push to address fundraising woes for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - the mainstay of China's robust economy.

Global Times