Having a market semi-closed to foreigners can help insulate a nation’s shares from global turmoil.
Well, here’s one benefit to not being accepted into the MSCI Emerging Markets Index earlier this month: no Brexit shock to the mainland markets.
Having a market semi-closed to foreigners can help insulate a nation’s shares from global turmoil.
Chinese stocks have been one of the world’s best performers since the United Kingdom shocked the world and sent global financial markets tumbling by voting to leave the European Union.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index advanced 0.7% Wednesday to 2,931.59, for a 1.4% rally since the Brexit vote was announced Friday. Making it the second-largest gainer among 94 benchmark indexes tracked by Bloomberg, topped only by the Jakarta Composite Index. The MSCI All-Country World Index fell 4.5% over the same period.
Drug makers, industrial and consumer-staples companies led the Shanghai higher. Traditional medicine maker Beijing Tongrentang rose 7.6%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 1.3% Wednesday, with Cheung Kong Property Holdings and Bank of East Asia rallying at least 3.2%. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index advanced 0.4%, while the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Composite Index inched up 0.15%.
Local individuals account for about 80% of trading because China restricts the access foreigners have to its stock markets, allowing only those with approved investment quotas to buy or sell yuan-denominated shares. At the end of May, 273 global investors were granted quotas for $81.1 billion under the qualified foreign institutional investor, or QFII, system, according to the nation’s foreign-exchange regulator, reported Bloomberg. That’s about 1.3% of the nation’s market capitalization.
“China’s market is still a semi-closed one that isn’t subject to too much in the way of fund outflows,” Wei Wei, an analyst at Huaxi Securities in Shanghai told Bloomberg.
Mainland buying of Hong Kong shares via an exchange link with Shanghai has accelerated in the past two months, with the total available quota dropping below 25% of the aggregate limit of 250 billion yuan ($38 billion), according to Bloomberg.
China will kick off June economic data releases on Friday, starting with the purchasing managers’ index. Hong Kong’s markets will be closed on Friday for a public holiday.