The market for initial public offerings in China and Hong Kong will begin to pick up in the second half of this year as the impact of Beijing’s stimulus package starts to feed through into the wider economy, according to a report from PwC on Monday.

New listings in Hong Kong are expected to raise HK$70bn ($9bn) in 2009, slightly more than last year’s HK$65.8bn, PwC said. The number of new listings, however, is likely to slip to 35 in 2009, down from 49 in 2008.