The number of initial public offerings in Canada was way up in 2010 compared to the year before, with 25 companies listing on the S&P/TSX composite index with a combined value of $5.2 billion. In 2009, just four companies worth a total of $1.7 billion were listed. The TSX Venture, which represents smaller companies, gained 42 new entrants in 2010, compared to 20 the year before. Many of the companies that started selling on the exchanges are in resource extraction, including Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., which was the largest with a $1.3 billion offering. Neil Manji, national IPO services leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers (which released yesterday’s report), said he expects momentum to continue this year, assuming good news from the US markets.