(Yicai Global) July 8 -- Shanghai's new trading board for innovative science and technology firms will begin trading on July 22, with a batch of 25 companies the first to go on sale.

Some 21 of the firms will have arranged underwriting by July 12, the Shanghai Stock Exchange said in a statement on July 5, adding that it will hold a ceremony on the launch day to celebrate the occasion.

The 25 companies in question plan to raise up to CNY31.1 billion (USD4.5 billion), nearly a quarter of all funds raised in China for initial public offerings last year, it added. Rail transit control system supplier China Railway Signal & Communciation has set its sights the highest, hoping to pull in as much as CNY10.5 billion, according to its prospectus.

Business systems for listing and trading on the new board -- known as the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, or STAR Market -- are all in place and running smoothly, the bourse said, adding that preparations for the first batch of listings are essentially complete but that it still needs conduct stress and business clearance tests.

As of July 4, the STAR Market had received 141 listing applications and the board's review committee had approved 31 to go public. 25 of them, those set to list this month, have already got the green light from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the national market watchdog.

Editor: James Boynton