China's economic hub Shanghai ranks as the sixth most competitive financial center worldwide, up from the eighth last year, according to the Xinhua-Dow Jones International Financial Centers Development Index (IFCD Index) issued Friday.

A total of 45 international financial centers have been evaluated on the overall performance of their financial industries and related development environment, with top 10 cities this year being New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Paris, Frankfurt, Sydney, and Amsterdam.

The IFCD Index was jointly launched by CFC Holding Company, a subsidiary of Xinhua News Agency, and CME Group Index Services LLC (Dow Jones Indexes).

The index is a ranking of the competitiveness of financial centers around the world on the basis of a comprehensive valuation system combining objective indicators and surveys.

China's capital city of Beijing and its southern economic powerhouse Shenzhen ranked 14 and 21 in the list, respectively.

In terms of growth and development potential, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo were the top three financial hubs.

The rising ranking of Shanghai shows "strong growth momentum while displaying stability," which is a necessary condition for a mature financial center, said a report released with the index.

There were more financial factors flowing to the city in the past year, giving it greater confidence to compete with the financial centers of Europe and the United States in the future, it said.

Shanghai also topped the confidence comparison on financial centers of the BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which is seen most likely to become one of global leading international financial centers, followed by Moscow, Sao Paulo, Johannesburg and Mumbai.

Meanwhile, the yuan ranked the first in the currency familiarity index for BRICS nations.