BEIJING - After two companies were delisted Monday, 16 others are waiting to see if they will meet the same fate before the year's end on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the smaller of China's two bourses.

Amid a push to improve its stock delisting procedures, the SZSE said in a statement on its website on Monday that Jiangsu Chinese Online Logistics Co Ltd and Powerise Information Technology Co Ltd failed to win approval to resume trading and would be delisted.

The SZSE deliberated the status of four companies on Monday. Dandong Chemical Fibre Co Ltd and Sichuan Direction Photoelectricity Co Ltd were allowed to resume trading, while the other two were not, according to the headline story in Tuesday's Shanghai Securities News.

Jiangsu Chinese Online Logistics saw three consecutive years of losses from 2003 to 2005. It was suspended in accordance with regulations on May 15, 2006, while Powerise Information Technology saw losses from 2004 to 2006 and its trading was suspended on May 24, 2007, according to the SZSE.

Stock delisting will be a common procedure as the pro-market reform of the country's stock market goes forward, the report said, citing experts' opinions.

In late June, both the SZSE and the Shanghai Stock Exchange released programs specifying delisting criteria and requirements concerning the stock performance of listed companies. The move marked a bid to protect investors and promote the healthy development of the stock market.

So far, a total of 45 companies have been delisted from both stock exchanges in China, according to the SZSE.