This was the signal for investment managers, senior deal makers and their clients to get back on the road and finalise deals which had been temporarily shelved when big players stopped travelling.

Deals and initial public offerings (IPOs) which had been put on hold have been swiftly revived, with local and international investor interest further ignited by a surge in global stock markets.

Hong Kong-based brokers and bankers are also back on the international roadshow circuit, presenting Hong Kong investment opportunities to institutional investors in key markets.

Investment banker Morgan Stanley teamed up with a clutch of top Hong Kong companies to meet investment managers in London, New York, Boston and San Francisco.

The bank expects a good response, said Vincent Chui, managing director and head of Institutional Equity Sales.  "Global liquidity and heightened risk appetite have led to significant re-rating of Hong Kong and other regional equity markets.

"With the Chinese and Hong Kong economies recovering from Sars and signs of improving economic performance in the US in the second half, we are optimistic that earnings momentum will be very strong."

Rush on market listings

Pent-up demand for new issues is expected to be met by a rush of stock market listings, many from the mainland, according to HKEx chief executive Paul Chow Man-Yiu.

"I expect there will be 60 to 70 new listings in the second half of this year, with most of them mainland enterprises. This will hopefully help the exchange maintain the same number of new listings as last year," he said. The number of new listings is expected to equal last year's record of 117.

International investors' thirst for mainland companies with a Hong Kong listing was heavily underlined by the massive demand for stock in two of the early post-Sars runners.

Shares in the Shanghai-based Linhua Supermarket chain were oversubscribed more than 80 times, while Vedan International, a Taiwan-owned food manufacturer with factories in Vietnam and the mainland, attracted offers for 100 times the amount of stock available.

There was also a good response to the near HK$1 billion (US$129 million) share offering from Beijing Capital Land, with international investors bidding for 10 times their share allocation.

While IPOs grabbed the headlines, investment bankers also reported a big revival in private deal making action and merger and acquisition activity. Many investment banks had postponed deals as key local staff were advised not to travel to the mainland, limiting their contacts to video conferences and telephone calls.

The revival in market action is also good news for the general economy as the arrival of overseas investors revived demand for airlines, hotels and restaurants, while new deals coming down the pipeline also kept bankers, lawyers and accountants busy.

Click Recovery takes off at Chek Lap Kok