The Star 50 index value at the Shanghai Stock Exchange in China at the end of January 2025 was about 955 points. The Star 50 index was dominated by the information technology industry and the pharmaceutical industry, including Beijing Kingsoft Office, Advanced Micro, and Haier Biometrical. A new milestone The Shanghai Stock Exchange introduced the Star 50 index at the end of July 2020, which was a significant step in constructing the trading board. Created in July 2019, the Star Market targeted tech-startups by having a more lenient listing process compared to other markets in China. For instance, companies did not have to be profitable, and they did not require approval from government regulators. Instead, companies applied via a registration-style process, overseen by the stock exchange itself. Therefore, it could provide young companies with easier access to capital and facilitate their growth. Finally, the introduction of a stock index allowed investors to monitor and assess the performance of the board. The Star 50 index tracked the performance of the 50 biggest companies traded on the Star Market. Facilitating self-reliance Under the ongoing decoupling of the United States and China, policymakers in Beijing strived to have independent, domestic capital markets that were attractive enough to Chinese tech companies to list at home rather than overseas. Therefore, the Shanghai Stock Exchange copied the registration-style listing process from the NASDAQ as well as lowered the listing requirements. By mid-2020, the Star Market had the second most IPOs in the first half of the year, behind the NASDAQ.

CN: Index: Shanghai Stock Exchange: STAR 50 data was reported at 1,029.050 31Dec2019=1000 in 26 Mar 2025. This records a decrease from the previous number of 1,031.700 31Dec2019=1000 for 25 Mar 2025. CN: Index: Shanghai Stock Exchange: STAR 50 data is updated daily, averaging 1,061.850 31Dec2019=1000 from Dec 2019 (Median) to 26 Mar 2025, with 1267 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,721.976 31Dec2019=1000 in 13 Jul 2020 and a record low of 643.040 31Dec2019=1000 in 23 Sep 2024. CN: Index: Shanghai Stock Exchange: STAR 50 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Shanghai Stock Exchange. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Financial Market – Table CN.ZA: Shanghai Stock Exchange: STAR Market: Indices: Daily.

In December 7, the company that had the highest weight of 10.29 percent in the Star 50 index at the Shanghai Stock Exchange in China was Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. The Shanghai-based company is partly-state owned and the vanguard of China's semiconductor industry.

In August 2021, 64 percent of companies of the Star 50 index at the Shanghai Stock Exchange in China belonged to the information technology industry. The index was the first index of the Star Market and it represented the performance of the board's 50 biggest companies. Since the objective of the board was to foster the development of innovative companies, information technology and pharmaceutical industries accounted for the largest share in the Star 50 index.

As of January 2025, the SSE Composite Index had closed at 3,250.6 points. The index reflects the performance of all stocks traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, including both boards, the main board, and the Star market. SSE still number one In the greater Chinese region, the stock exchange in Shanghai was the largest, beating the bourses in Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In 2023, the Shanghai Stock Exchange recorded a market capitalization of over 6.5 trillion. Not only market capitalization was a unique attribute, but the Shanghai Stock Exchange was also home to the most valuable stock in mainland China, which was the baijiu producer Moutai Kweichow. Limited access Despite its size, the exchange in Shanghai only grants limited access to overseas investors. The bourse listed A-shares and B-shares. While A-shares are denominated in yuan and almost exclusively available for domestic traders, the prices of B-shares are in U.S. dollars and available for overseas investors as well. In addition, the bourse offers access to foreign investors through a trading accreditation which is supervised by the Chinese authorities. However, these tight controls are the reason why Hong Kong, despite its lower relative market capitalization, remains an important gateway to capital for mainland Chinese companies.

In December 2023, the ChiNext Price Index of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China had a value of 1,891.37 points. The ChiNext Price Index summarizes the performance of the one hundred largest shares traded on the ChiNext Board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Almost 70 percent of companies listed were in the manufacturing industry, followed by the IT sector which represented around 18 percent of enterprises. The Chinese NASDAQ The Shenzhen Stock Exchange has three market tiers, the Main Board, the SME-Board, and ChiNext. The Main Board is home to large companies like Ping An Bank, BOE Technology, and Yanjing Beer. The SME-Board was designated for small and medium-sized enterprises that had consolidated their market position and had stable profitability. In contrast to that, The ChiNext Board’s purpose was to provide access to capital for young, innovative companies. That is why ChiNext’s regulations and standards are more lenient than the other markets. For instance, companies do not have to be profitable to be listed and IPO-listings do not require approval by regulators but instead followed a registration-style approval process. In this regard, ChiNext is very similar to the NASDAQ or its Chinese counterpart the Star Market at the stock market in Shanghai. Bringing Chinese Unicorns home Deregulation of the stock market was part of a broader strategy to make domestic capital more attractive to Chinese companies. The primary source of financing for many companies in China is through banks, which are notoriously cautious of young, privately-owned companies. At the same time, China is home to some of the world’s largest and most valuable technology companies. However, many Chinese companies decide to go public in the United States instead of their homeland, like Alibaba Group, Baidu, and JD.com. Hence, the Chinese government has been willing to give up some market control in return for a higher appeal of the domestic capital markets for home-grown start-ups. The Shanghainese equivalent Star Market was rumored to attract the IPOs of tech-unicorns ByteDance, maker of TikTok, and the “most-valuable” start-up DiDi Chuxing. ChiNext, however, had not yet been able to deliver comparable results.

In 2023, the index value of the NEEQ Component Index traded on the National Equity Exchange and Quotations in China was 754. The peak was in 2015 at the height of the stock market turbulence. Since then, the index was on a downward trajectory. Competition from the ChiNext board in Shenzhen and the Star A board in Shanghai reduced the attractiveness of the National Equity Exchange and Quotation for traders and companies alike.