The CSRC reopened the market in January last year, six months before the markets began a bull run that ended last month.

, a financial news magazine on the mainland, reported on Saturday the State Council had decided to suspend all public offerings on the mainland, but that report has not been confirmed by official news sources.

Analysts said Hong Kong, as a mature, market-driven international fundraising centre, was likely to benefit from a slowdown or freeze in mainland offerings.

"A repeat of that would be very damaging for the nascent development of China's capital markets," said Louis Tse, a director of VC Brokerage.

"Investors, especially those large institutional players, have a higher confidence in Hong Kong, where policies and rule of law are visible to them."

Tse said Hong Kong had a solid history of hosting big offerings from mainland state-owned enterprises as well as other international names such as Italy's Prada and Russian aluminium producer Rusal.

There are at least four sizeable deals in the pipeline for the rest of the year, each of more than US$1 billion, besides a cluster of moderate-sized offerings coming from the private sector.

Shanghai-listed China Merchant Securities, the mainland's sixth-largest brokerage by assets, is expected to raise as much as US$5 billion in a share sale in Hong Kong.

"Beijing has encouraged securities companies to further increase capital through IPOs, as part of the long-term development of a multi-layered capital market," said Ring Choi, a managing partner at accounting company EY.

"Hong Kong is undoubtedly an attractive and competitive fundraising market, where rules and regulations are clear to every participant."

In contrast to Hong Kong, the mainland's listing market is strictly controlled by the authorities.

The CSRC said on Friday it would slow the pace of approving new share offerings in a move to shore up confidence in the mainland stock markets. The Shanghai Composite Index is down 29 per cent since hitting a seven-year high on June 12 and the Shenzhen Composite Index is down 32 per cent - both firmly in bear market territory.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index is now up 10.42 per cent for the year, compared with a 13.98 per cent gain for the Shanghai Composite Index.

"The valuation gap between the A and H-share markets has and will continue to attract investment into Hong Kong," said Mille Cheng, Morgan Stanley's co-head of equity capital markets for the Asia-Pacific.

The other co-head, Jerome Leleu, said: "Overall sentiment remains constructive. Investors are looking for the right investment opportunities.

"Uncertain macro conditions remain the key concern, and more particularly the high volatility resulting from the ever faster reaction of investors to the news flow around rates, GDP and policy."

China International Capital Corp is planning to raise US$1 billion in a Hong Kong offering in the fourth quarter that could value the company at US$4 billion.

Meanwhile, China Reinsurance is planning to raise about US$2 billion, while a share offering by Huarong Asset Management, one of the big four managers of bad assets on the mainland, may add US$3 billion, leading to another listing bonanza towards the end of the year.

Accounting firm PwC expects the amount of capital raised in Hong Kong's IPO market may reach HK$250 billion this year, up from a previous prediction of HK$200 billion.

For the first six months of the year, 51 companies raised HK$129.4 billion, up 58 per cent year on year. The city's three biggest initial public offerings in the first half - from Huatai Securities, GF Securities and computer-financial conglomerate Legend Holdings Corp - raised US$11.1 billion.