Float prospects

The nation's securities regulator is to review Agricultural Bank of China (ABC)'s application for a mega initial public offering on Wednesday; it is imperative to clarify the purpose of the float in order to still a jittery market still recovering from a recent slump.

If the purpose of raising funds is chiefly to enhance the rural lender's capital base, the effort will not be worth the big hubbub it has attracted so far.

The IPO by the last of China's "big four" State-owned lenders was widely anticipated to fetch as much as $30 billion from the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets, and touted to be likely the largest such in the world.