Investors check stock price movements at a securities brokerage in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. (File photo: China Daily)

BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Science and technology enterprises in east China's Shanghai raised 5.46 billion yuan (about 780.14 million U.S. dollars) on China's sci-tech innovation board, or the STAR market, said the People's Bank of China Shanghai Head Office.

The aggregate, calculated since the opening of the board in July of last year, accounted for 69.9 percent of their annual financing via initial public offerings.

Boosted by the funding on the board, their outstanding equity financing by the end of 2019 grew 8.5 percent from the beginning of the year to 298.2 billion yuan.

The companies' bond financing expanded by 30.4 percent year on year to 115.96 billion yuan.

The balance of private equity financing at the end of last year rose 14.7 percent from the beginning of the year.

Compared with direct financing, however, indirect financing remained the major financing channel for the companies.

By the end of 2019, the outstanding loans of the sci-tech companies in Shanghai reached 239.74 billion yuan, up 22.8 percent year on year. The growth rate was 15.6 percentage points higher than that for non-financial enterprises in the city.