China's bullish stock market saw total market value hit a record high of eight trillion yuan (over one trillion U.S. dollars) on Dec. 20, making it the largest emerging stock market in the world.

Capitalization of the Shanghai Stock Exchange reached 6.304 trillion yuan at the end of the previous trading day while that of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange amounted to 1.739 trillion yuan, according to the latest statistics from the two bourses.

Total market value of the two bourses has surged 1.5 trillion yuan since Nov. 16 when it broke the 6.5 trillion yuan mark.

China's capital market has been developing "in leaps and bounds" since the beginning of the year and has overtaken the Republic of Korea and India in market value in the past two months, said Qi Bin, director of the research center of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

The fast growth was mainly attributed to the continuous rise of stock prices. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index that covers both A- and B-shares closed at 2,249.11 points on Dec. 14, smashing the record of 2,245 points created in June 2001.

The Shenzhen Component Index also hit a record high, closing at 6,168.49 points the following day.

The stock market is having a greater influence on China's national economy as the market value increases, the Shanghai Securities News reported Thursday.

The ratio of stock market value to China's gross domestic product will rise from 18 percent in 2005 to 40 percent in 2006, based on the expectation that this year's GDP will reach 20 trillion yuan, said the report.

Analysts believe the Chinese stock market has enormous potential in the future because the ratio of stock market value to GDP stands at 92 percent on a global basis and well above 100 percent in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Even the ratio in some newly-industrialized countries are much higher than that of China - 88 percent in the Republic of Korea and 70 percent in India.

Changjiang Securities predicts 10 blue chips will be launched in the Chinese stock market in 2007, raising 100 billion yuan to 150 billion yuan. Meanwhile, the two bourses will play a bigger role in the country's national economy as a lot of major blue chip companies that are listed overseas will return to home markets.

"The Chinese stock market will be worth 30 trillion yuan to 40 trillion yuan in 10 years, becoming one of the important stock markets in the world", said Pan Xinjun, president of Orient Securities Co. Ltd.