The global market for initial public offerings is running at its slowest since 2004 with fewer than 500 deals raising under $76bn so far this year. This is less than half the total amount raised by twice as many deals for the same period in 2007 and shows that the recent market turmoil continues to make investors wary of new listings.

To the end of July this year, 499 deals raised $75.9bn, compared with 1,055 deals that raised $167bn at the same stage last year, before the worst impact of the credit crunch that has thrown the capital markets into a spin since last August.