"The inspection campaign aims to push intermediaries to improve financial information quality and protect investors' interests," the CSRC official said.

Through Wednesday, 167 enterprises had withdrawn their IPO applications and 614 are still in contention, about 25 percent less than at the beginning of the financial inspections.

Companies that gave up on their IPOs did so mainly because of their shrinking profits, analysts said.

Through Sunday, 182 public companies from the ChiNext board released the annual reports for 2012, and 38.5 percent showed a net profit decline, the Wind Information reported.

According to the CSRC, 82 enterprises have already passed the review from the IPO issuance and examination commission, waiting for final permission from the top regulator.

Issuing new shares is expected to pull down the stock index in the short term, especially when the bullish market has not yet emerged, said Mao Changqing, chief strategies analyst from Citic Securities Co Ltd.

"Restarting IPO approvals in April or May is not the most significant issue. The key is to accelerate the reform of the whole IPO issuance system, which will bring long-term influence to the A-share market," said Mao.

Since Xiao Gang, the new CSRC chairman, took the post, no reform policies have been released, sparking market speculation about whether market-oriented reform will continue.