China maintained its leading position in global IPO markets in 2010, despite stock volatility, said the international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in a recent report.

The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges witnessed 349 IPOs last year, raising a combined 478.3 billion yuan ($72.7 billion) last year, an increase of 155 percent year on year.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) picked up momentum—the Shenzhen SME board attracted 204 IPOs, which raised 202.7 billion yuan ($30.8 billion). The growth enterprise board ChiNext, also boomed with 95.4 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) raised via 117 new listings.

It showed that the development of Chinese SMEs has entered a growth boom, promising to become the main driving force for capital markets in the future, said Frank Lyn, PwC China markets leader.

In addition, information technology and telecom companies accounted for 35 percent of IPOs on the ChiNext. It seems that capital resources have been weighted in favor of growth and innovation-based enterprises, said the report.

However, due to the potential lack of major IPOs in 2011, PwC forecasts that listing exercises this year may not raise funds as large as those in 2010.

However, due to the low probability of a major IPO in the near term, PwC expected new listings to drop to 320 in 2011, raising around 400 billion yuan ($60.8 billion).