China's proposed high-tech stock board will lower the profitability requirements for candidate companies but will not directly accept biotech firms that have not had any income, a source close to the Shanghai Stock Exchange has revealed amid scant early details.

Draft rules for the upcoming trial of the board's registration-based IPO system have been completed but are still pending changes, the source said. These comments show it is likely that money-losing startups, who are generally barred from listing on the mainland, would be allowed to list, and also provide a rare early look at IPO reforms that were announced in early November but have been kept under wraps.

The creation of a new high-tech trading venue, possibly to be modeled on the wildly successful Nasdaq Stock Exchange in the U.S., is meant to boost business confidence amid slowing growth and mounting U.S. tariffs.

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