The market for new public offerings on Canadian equity markets suffered again in the second quarter, with just 18 new issues worth $466-million, a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey shows.

The new issues in the second quarter on Canadian exchanges compared to 20 initial public offerings worth $555-million in the same period in 2007, the survey said.

“The IPO market in Canada is in the centre of a perfect storm of negative factors that are pushing the market into record low territory,” Ross Sinclair, PwCs' national leader of IPO and income trust services, said in a statement.

On the Toronto Stock Exchange, there were seven new issues in the second quarter worth $434-million, compared to eight worth $453-million during the same quarter in 2007.

In the first half of 2008, the 38 new issues worth $614-million is almost one-third less than the 41 new issues worth $855-million in 2007.

At that pace, the market will struggle to reach even half the value of that in 2001, the slowest period in the decade when only 46 new issues worth $2.07-billion reached the market, Mr. Sinclair said.

“A slowdown in the U.S. economy, continued uncertainty in credit markets, concern in the financial services sector, the disappearance of income trusts and the impact of higher oil prices have all contributed to an environment where it is hard to see any optimism,” Mr. Sinclair said in his statement.

During the first half of the year, the Toronto Stock Exchange had 10 new issues worth $547-million, down from the 13 IPOs worth $644-million during the same period last year. The largest IPO on the Toronto exchange belonged to Sprott Inc., which issued a $200-million IPO in April 2008.

On the TSX Venture exchange, nine IPOs worth $30-million were issued – less than a third of the $99-million in the same period of 2007, according to the survey.

The second quarter was an improvement from the first, but Mr. Sinclair doesn't believe the IPO market will improve before the fall.

The best year for IPOs this decade was 2005 - 119 new issues worth $6.9-billion came to the market.