The booming Chinese mainland stock market will lure the country's largest mobile operator back from overseas bourses in the first half of next year, a newspaper reported last Saturday.

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The Hong Kong and New York-listed China Mobile has chosen underwriters and is likely to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in the yuan-denominated A-share market, the Shanghai -based 21st Century Business Herald quoted an unidentified source close to the company as saying.

The company declined to answer questions, saying it was waiting for instructions from the China Securities Regulatory Commission , the country's securities market watchdog.

Wang Jianzhou, president of China Mobile, said in May that he expected a mainland listing, but there was no timetable.

A home listing would give its customers and mainland investors a chance to share the company's profits, Wang was quoted as saying.

The company saw its market value top all other telecommunications operators in the world at 132.58 billion U.S. dollars on August 10 on the New York bourse.

The long bearish mainland stock market forced many Chinese companies to go public in Hong Kong or foreign markets, with the net assets of top ten Chinese firms listed overseas almost 3.5 times that of the biggest ten mainland-listed firms.

However, a remarkable rally in the A-share market this year has boosted the confidence of investors and companies.

The Hushen 300 Index, a major index of the A-share market, posted a 121-percent rise this year, a higher growth than any other stock market in the world.

The government is encouraging almost 130 state-owned enterprises listed overseas to return to the mainland stock markets.

By returning to the mainland stock market, State-owned companies would make the domestic capital market more valuable to investors and set examples of standard operation and corporate governance improvements for other home-listed firms, said Shao Ning, vice director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

Major Hong Kong-listed companies are on the waiting list to return, including petroleum giant PetroChina and insurance heavyweight Ping An Insurance .

Guangshen Railway, originally listed in Hong Kong, made its debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange earlier.

China Life, one of the first overseas-listed Chinese life insurers, plans to debut on the Shanghai market on January 9, 2007.

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