Hong Kong remained a popular fund-raising center for global businesses last year as the funds raised through initial public offerings (IPOs) in its stock exchange ranked the second largest globally only after Nasdaq.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) has unveiled in its annual market statistics report that IPO equity funds raised in 2020 stood at 51.28 billion U.S. dollars, up 26.5 percent year on year.

The report said Nasdaq topped the global IPO fund-raising list with 57.3 billion U.S. dollars raised and the Shanghai stock exchange was at third place with 49.42 billion U.S. dollars raised.

Altogether 154 businesses went public in Hong Kong last year, taking the total number of stocks listed in HKEX to 2,538.

Among the newcomers, JD.com, JD Health International and NetEase were the three largest listings, which raised 34.56 billion, 31 billion and 24.26 billion Hong Kong dollars, respectively.

"HKEX has had a very good year," Charles Li Xiaojia, former Chief Executive of HKEX, has said. "I have every confidence that HKEX will continue to play a vital role connecting investors, corporates and markets around the world." (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.75 HKD)