New rules making it easier for international investors to trade in China’s booming capital markets have come into force, adding momentum to Beijing’s sweeping liberalization of its financial system, reported the Financial Times.
The measures, which went into effect on Sunday, update the official schemes that govern foreign access to the country’s enormous capital markets.
They allow much greater access to China’s onshore futures markets, an important tool in hedging stock market positions as well as for speculating on price movements. Foreign investors will also be able to lend out their holdings of shares that trade in Shanghai and Shenzhen, allowing others to use them to take bearish positions, said the FT.
“If you’re any financial institution, a fund manager big or small, China is now an open market to you,” said Fraser Howie, an independent analyst and expert on the country’s financial system. “It really is a high point of openness and capital market development [for China].”