BEIJING, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - Chinese firms raised a record amount of nearly 57 billion dollars on the country's stock market over the first nine months of the year, state press said Wednesday.

The sum of 425 billion yuan (56.7 billion dollars) had surpassed the total of 423.9 billion yuan raised on China's markets from 2002 to 2006, Xinhua news agency said.

Some 35 percent of the money raised this year came in 15 initial public offerings (IPOs) last month, which garnered 149 billion yuan, the report said, citing the China Securities Journal.

The IPOs included China Shenhua, one of the nation's largest coal producers, which raised a record 66.58 billion yuan on the Shanghai bourse last week, it said.

Only days before, China Construction Bank, one of China's four top commercial lenders, raised over 58 billion yuan in the nation's second-largest flotation.

Nearly 300 billion yuan has been raised through new flotations so far this year, the figures show.

Chinese authorities have been encouraging more domestic share issues to increase the supply of shares, seeking to absorb cash that has been driving a stock market boom with the key index up more than 100 percent this year.

Some 126.7 billion yuan of the total raised this year came through secondary public offerings rather than new flotations, and that figure was about 6.9 billion yuan more than in the 2002-2006 period, the Xinhua report said.

More big listings are expected during the fourth quarter, including from PetroChina, one of the nation's leading onshore oil and gas producers.