The world's third-largest stock exchange with
US$5.6tn market capitalisation, giving investors unprecedented
access to the world's largest consumer market? It could happen,
thanks to Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect.
Amid the hustle and bustle of the
26th APEC Summit in Beijing, the Chinese government finally
granted the green light to a long-awaited plan to connect the Hong
Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges.
The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect opened this week, allowinig
a daily quota of US$3.8bn in cross-border purchases by investors
operating through both exchanges.
Before this, only a handful of fund managers were allow to trade
Shanghai 'A' shares under a quota system capped at a total
of US$105bn. Since Hong Kong's capital markets are opened to
any foreign investor with a local brokerage account, the average
retail investor around the world can now buy into any of the 568
companies listed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange with the
linkage.
