Despite a strong start in the first half of the year, the initial public offering market has slowed as more companies delayed their offerings due to uncertainties in the global economy.
A total of 125 companies made their stock market debut this year, compared with 153 in 2010, 63 in 2009, 31 in 2008, during the financial crisis, and 214 in 2007.
Although technology and energy make up 57 percent of the deals this year, the most successful IPO, based on price appreciation, is GNC, a nutritional-product retailer that went public back in April for $16 a share and is up nearly 75 percent since then.
The second-best performing IPO is Tesoro Logistics, a subsidiary of oil refiner Tesoro , followed by Imperva, a data-security software firm. Both companies are up more than 50 percent from their initial filing prices.