China launches landmark Shanghai-Hong Kong stock link program

SHANGHAI, Nov. 17 (NsNewsWire) — Gongs were struck in the Shanghai and Hong Kong bourses to mark the historic start of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program on Monday.

The initiative is a landmark trading link program allowing investors to trade on both bourses. It has been seen as a significant move toward a more open capital market in the Chinese mainland, reports Xinhua.

The much-anticipated launch is expected to see billions of dollars in daily cross-border transactions.

Under the whole program, which caps cross-border investment at 550 billion yuan (90 billion U.S. dollars), investors, with over 500,000 yuan in their brokerage accounts, will be allowed to trade eligible shares listed on either market through local securities firms or brokers.

Each day, investors are permitted to buy and sell up to 23.5 billion yuan worth of stock from a select list of companies. Up to 10.5 billion yuan of that daily quota goes to mainland investors and the rest to Hong Kong.