Many happy returns as Shanghai bourse turns 25

Shanghai

WHEN Qian Qimin started investing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange - where trading began 25 years ago on Saturday - he lined up at a sports stadium to buy shares of a textile machinery maker, one of just a handful of listed companies.

One share in Shanghai Erfangji cost 1.87 yuan on its first day as a quoted company. It was later taken over in a corporate restructuring and its successor firm is now around 16 times higher.

A quarter of a century after it opened for business, the Shanghai exchange as a whole has more than 1,000 listed firms, nearly 100 million investors - more than the membership of the Communist Party - and a total market capitalisation of US$4.5 trillion. It has given companies a key funding source outside th…