The exchange is hoping that these companies will at least agree to list their shares in both places.

Nasdaq would also list its shares on the London exchange.

Then there are the companies listing their shares only on the mainland.

For accounting reasons, most of these companies have been reluctant to list their shares here.

Nasdaq has already listed shares of 16 Japanese companies on its market.

Together with the stock exchange, the government has created tax incentives to encourage companies to list their shares.

This would allow it to list shares in the United States by late next year.

Although trading is due to start later this month, only a few companies have so far announced intentions to list their shares.

By all accounts, no one was better at persuading companies to list their shares on the exchange.

The banks plan eventually to list the company's shares on Western stock exchanges, in the first such offering of its kind.