A RECORD number of companies canceled initial public offerings in the first quarter as stock markets fell and concerns about a recession sapped demand for new shares, a survey by Ernst & Young LLP said yesterday.

As many as 83 companies withdrew IPOs while a further 24 delayed share sales, the accounting firm said. The number of companies going public declined 60 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 and was down 38 percent from the first three months of last year.

"There isn't likely to be much change before the last quarter and that's probably an optimistic prognosis," Ernst & Young IPO Leader David Wilkinson said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg Television.