HONG KONG, Oct 8 Follow-on share sales have risen nearly 73 percent to a record US$ 71.5

HONG KONG, Oct 8 (Reuters) Follow-on share sales have risen nearly 73 percent to a record US$71.5 billion in Asia this year, according to a report by Thomson Financial, as listed firms returned to booming stock markets.

In the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan, Australia took the biggest share, with US$16.4 billion from 416 repeat issuers, followed by China, India and Hong Kong -- each with at least US$11 billion worth of offerings.

ICICI Bank's near $5 billion share sale in June was the largest follow-on share offering from India and the largest for Asia so far this year, helping boost the overall offering in India to US$12.1 billion from just US$3.8 billion in the same period last year, Thomson said.

CITIC Securities , China's biggest listed brokerage, Taiwan's contract chip maker TSMC , and Australia's Westfield Group were also active this year.

REUTERS SR GC1154