SMALL and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) raised 5.98 billion yuan (US$866.92 million) on China’s “new third board” in November, National Equities Exchange and Quotations Co. (NEEQ) said Sunday.

It marks a growth rate of 46.6 percent from a month ago. The fund was collected from 94 stock sales in November.

In the first 11 months of the year, 1,267 SMEs raised 57.67 billion yuan through 1,322 stock public offerings.

Weekly turnover stands at 1.61 billion yuan, up 7.06 percent compared with a week earlier.

Founded in 2013, the NEEQ was launched to supplement the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges and is seen as a more beneficial financing channel for small businesses with its low costs and simple listing procedures.

China has worked to build a multi-level capital market that satisfies growing funding demand from all kinds of firms, no matter how big or small, with measures taken to encourage direct financing.

Currently, the main domestic trading venues for China’s technology companies are the NASDAQ-style ChiNext board on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Beijing-based NEEQ.

The former has 736 members, and most are small technology firms with a track record of profitability at the time of listing.

The NEEQ sets the bar much lower for listing than the ChiNext does. There’s no requirement for profitability. The market has some 10,800 firms, but trading turnover is tiny. (SD-Xinhua)