Driven largely by increases in China, global equity trading volumes surged in the first half of 2015, according to new data from the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE).

The value of worldwide share rose 36% in the first half of 2015 to US$59 trillion up form the second half of 2014. The value of trading was up 58% year over year.

Similarly, the number of trades rose 36% from the second half of 2014 (up 67% year over year), the WFE notes. As well, global market capitalization rose by 8% over he period to US$73 trillion (up 6% year over year).

Asia led the way in these gains. For example, share trading volumes rose 166% in mainland China in the first half. Excluding China, volumes were still up 12% in the Asia Pacific region. For the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region, volumes were up 11%. In contrast, the Americas only saw a 1% increase, and this was solely due to a 2% increase in U.S. volumes, outside of the U.S. trading volumes in the Americas declined.

Asian exchanges also saw a strong climb in market cap, with mainland China increasing by 60%, Japan up 13%, Hong Kong rising 16%, and Korea adding 10%.

“World exchanges saw a continued and significant climb in trading volumes through the first half of this year. Even excluding the boost afforded the headline numbers by China, there was still a respectable 5% increase in global trading volumes,” says Nandini Sukumar, CEO of the WFE, in a statement.

“A number of special factors explain the recent developments in the Chinese markets, including: strong participation by retail investors, strong market performance and high volatility. We wait to see what impact more recent developments will have on market volumes,” adds Gregoire Naacke, senior analyst at the WFE.

The WFE report also notes a strong increase in initial public offering (IPO) activity in the first half, indicating that the number of IPOs increased by 19% year over year; and, total investment flows increased by 42%. In additional, the volume of exchange traded derivatives increased by 3.5% compared with the end of 2014, mainly driven by commodity and currency derivatives, the WFE says

“The clear takeaway message from these data is that exchanges are continuing to play a vital role in financing the real economy, with IPO activity increasing 19% and investment flows 42% year on year,” Sukumar says.