Twelve companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board, or STAR Market that has been dubbed the “Chinese Nasdaq,” have been included in the Stock Connect program from Monday.
Global institutional investors can now invest in these companies from Hong Kong through the Stock Connect program, which was launched in 2016 for Hong Kong and mainland investors to trade stocks in their counterparts’ bourses.
Prior to this, foreign investors could buy STAR Market shares only through the qualified foreign institutional investor channel by obtaining a license from the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
Data from GF Securities showed that the average market value of the 12 companies amounted to 51 billion yuan (US$7.9 billion). Over the past 12 months, the daily trading value came in at 378 million yuan, which was higher than the 247 million yuan average number of the 200-plus STAR Market companies.
The Shanghai bourse said last month that the inclusion of STAR Market stocks in the Stock Connect program would provide more investment avenues for overseas investors. It will also introduce more institutional investors into the STAR Market, which will further optimize the investor structure and accelerate the internationalization of China’s capital market.
The Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong bourses had reached a consensus on November 27 for expanding the scope of their stock connect programs by adding qualified STAR Market stocks.
Pork reserves
China is ready to release more pork from its central reserves around the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday to ensure stable pork supplies, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said Tuesday.
It will release 30,000 tonnes of pork per day between Thursday and February 9, said the NDRC. A total of 180,000 tonnes of pork have been released in seven rounds since December 17, 2020.
Driven by a booming pork demand, China’s stable meat prices started to grow from December last year, said an NDRC official. However, with the release of frozen pork from central and local reserves, the price edged down in January this year, the official said.
Foreign trade in Shenzhen
Shenzhen’s foreign trade grew 2.4% to 3.05 trillion yuan last year from 2019, local customs said Tuesday. Exports increased 1.5% to 1.7 trillion yuan while imports surged 3.6% to 1.35 trillion yuan.
Private companies helped stabilize foreign trade, contributing 1.81 trillion yuan in exports and imports, a year-on-year increase of 5.7%.
Innovative education
Eight teachers in Hong Kong were granted the Innovative Teacher Award by Hong Kong Education City (EdCity), a wholly-owned company of the Hong Kong government.
“Through this Innovative Teacher Award, we hope to recognize teachers who have successfully actualized innovative education by effective use of technology with support of theories and pedagogies, and appeal to more teachers to join the path of innovative education,” said Victor Cheng, Executive Director of EdCity.
The pandemic has resulted in a vibrant scene of innovative education. In a competition, more than 80 teachers submitted videos and briefs on their teaching philosophies and strategies months ago, according to EdCity. A judging panel consisting of professors, veteran principals and education experts evaluated the submissions and selected a total of eight primary and secondary school teachers as recipients of the award.
Company news
ByteDance’s Chinese short video app Douyin has filed a complaint with a court in Beijing to sue Tencent Holdings for monopolistic behavior and asked for 90 million yuan in compensation, ByteDance said Tuesday.
Tencent restricts users from sharing Douyin content on its instant messaging apps WeChat and QQ, which should be prohibited by anti-monopoly law, ByteDance said.
Douyin stated in the complaint that the monthly active users of WeChat and QQ have exceeded 1.2 billion and 600 million, respectively. Currently, there is no other operator in the market that can provide services equivalent to WeChat and QQ, which means that Tencent “holds a dominant position on the market.”
The stories were compiled by Nadeem Xu and KoKo and first published at ATimesCN.com.