Apart from being a leap year in the Gregorian calendar and also the Monkey's year in the Chinese one, this year was called the International year of the grain of rice by the United Nations; the UNESCO called it the year of abolishing slavery from every part of the planet; and it was called the year of road safety by the world health organization..



So much of significance happened during this year all around the globe. On the New Years day of this year Pervez Musharaff was allowed to be initiated as a dictator in the county of Pakistan until two thousand and seven. Not too far away, the Tsunami struck Asia. A gigantic wave caused a lot of damage, and it was caused by a huge earthquake with its epicenter in the Indian Ocean. Coming to our topic of interest it was predicted in the beginning of this year that over two hundred companies would go public on the stock markets.

By this we mean companies wiling to give out an initial public offering to the public. That would be the first public sale of a company in order to increase its revenues. We often see companies veering towards this strategy only to back out at the last minute thanks to sudden changes in the markets.

This year is considered kind of unique in the stock markets world, as it was predicted to break the two hundred number mark as far as organizations under IPO were concerned. The first nine months alone saw about one hundred and sixty four IPOs being filed. The prediction was made by the gurus of the market on studying the last quarter of the preceding year two thousand and three. A study of the past five years was also used to make this prediction. So it was believed that at least about fifty more companies would file for IPO during the winter months making the total to well over the predicted two hundred.

People were not very surprised then, when finally a number of two hundred and fifty three companies filed for IPO. The net worth in IPO was over forty six billion US dollars, bringing it in comparison to the year nineteen ninety eight where three seventy companies filed for a net worth of around forty four billion.

So, it can be said, in reminiscence, the year two thousand and four wasn't just a great one for President Bush and President Musharaff Pakistan, we also saw a lot of changes for the better in the stock markets.