(Yicai Global) June 19 -- The Shanghai Stock Exchange and index compiler China Securities Index will launch the first index to track Shanghai’s Star Market next month, a year after the Nasdaq-like board began trading.

The SSE Science and Technology Innovation Board 50 Index, or Star 50, will comprise 50 big cap, liquid stocks, the Shanghai exchange said in a statement today. Real-time quotes will begin on July 23.

The Star Market was launched on July 22 last year with the aim of making it easier for Chinese technology startups to go public.

The new gauge’s first constituent stocks will include Beijing Kingsoft Office Software, the sci-tech innovation board’s most valuable listing, and China Railway Signal & Communication, the only company to have raised more than CNY10 billion (USD1.4 billion) in a Star Market initial public offering so far.

The Star 50 Index, which will join mainland peers such as the tech-heavy ChiNext Index, will have a base level of 1,000 and a base date of Dec. 31, 2019.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange had first planned to launch a Star Market index on Oct. 16 last year, the 11th trading day after the number of stocks and depositary receipts listed reached 30. But it delayed due to the market environment and the number of listed companies.

As of June 12 last week, 110 firms had gone public on the Star Market, raising a total of CNY127.4 billion and with a combined market capitalization of CNY1.71 trillion (USD241.6 billion), SSE Chairman Huang Hongyuan said on the market’s first anniversary.

Editor: Peter Thomas