Beijing: China will allow foreign investors direct access to its massive bond market from Monday, the Chinese central bank said. A platform allowing one-way “northbound” investments from Hong Kong into the Chinese bond market will go into “experimental operation” on 3 July, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said in a joint statement on Sunday, which came as Hong Kong marked the 20th anniversary of its handover to China by Britain. However, this booming market has been virtually out of reach for foreign investors, who currently hold only a small portion of the bonds issued in China—less than 1.5% according to Bloomberg estimates. In 2014, a trading link between the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges was introduced, and another was started in December 2016 between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China’s other exchange. The bond move is the latest in a series of liberalisation pledges from China, which has regularly been hit by complaints from foreign companies and trading partners about access to its markets.

Source: Mint July 02, 2017 14:37 UTC