By Dasha Afanasieva

LONDON (Reuters) - Global equity raising fell by more than a quarter in 2016, data showed on Friday, hit by geopolitical shocks and a string of failed initial public offerings (IPOs), with the outlook for 2017 looking shaky.

Companies raised $648.9 billion in equity during 2016, against $873 billion last year, Thomson Reuters Equity Capital Markets (ECM) data up to Dec. 28 showed.

Money raised from IPOs was down by almost a third at $130.6 billion despite equity indices touching record highs in the latter stages of the year.

"The markets were volatile this year. There were times when IPOs got launched but didn't get done, and there were also fewer rights offerings," said Achintya Mangla, head of ECM in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at JP Morgan (JPM.N), which topped the league table for global equity offerings and IPOs.

"2017 will continue to be uncertain and volatile and I'd expect IPO volumes will be in line with this year."

Mangla added that, though he does not expect IPO activity to rise, there could be higher overall ECM volumes with a potential increase in rights issues and acquisition-related financing.

The year's biggest IPO, for Postal Savings Bank of China in September, was priced at the lower end of an indicative range and traded flat before falling more than 10 percent.

Share price falls following two big European IPOs -- payments company Nets (NETS.CO) and energy business Innogy (IGY.DE) -- put investors on edge, resulting in bankers being unable to drum up sufficient support for a string of other listings in the final quarter of 2016.

Market volatility was blamed for some of the canceled listings, which normally require a window of at least four weeks to complete. In Europe, IPOs more than halved in volume terms compared with 2015.

That could continue in 2017, with elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as Britain formally triggering the process of leaving the European Union, expected to limit the number of suitable windows to launch IPOs.

WAITING IN THE WINGS

However, preparations are under way for a number of big deals that could help to lift ECM activity in the coming year.

Telefonica (TEF.MC) has hired UBS (UBSG.S), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Barclays (BARC.L) as global coordinators to list its British mobile business O2, which could fetch about 10 billion pounds ($12.2 billion).

A planned IPO of Siemens' (SIEGn.DE) healthcare subsidiary and a capital raising by Bayer (BAYGn.DE) to finance the acquisition of Monsanto (MON.N) could also be big-ticket deals.