Deal toys and tombstones are "coming back" following the revival of the IPO market, but they have some way to go if the gifts from recent floats – which include t-shirts, discount vouchers and toilet roll lucites — are anything to go by.

The banks and law firms which advised Alibaba on its $25 billion IPO last month, the world's largest flotation in history, were given 'Tao Doll' t-shirts - depicting the orange mascot for Alibaba's shopping website Taobao - as a token of appreciation, according to two people on the deal.