China's securities regulator grappling with IPO woes

China's latest IPO reform seems "helpless" to suppress overpricing and cash outs in initial public offering operations, and a flood of IPOs in March will drag down the well-performing ChiNext Index, a senior analyst said.

"Based on the current situation, it seems likely that the new regulation will have no impact on taming high prices, high PE ratios and high financing volume during the IPO process," said Chen Li, chief China strategist at UBS Securities.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has fallen roughly 4.9 percent year-to-date following the China Securities Regulatory Commission's resumption of IPO approvals in late December.