The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has announced plans to give foreign individual investors access to the mainland’s A shares via local brokers, the South China Morning Post reports, marking a further step towards liberalisation of domestic markets.
Under the current system, only a select group of overseas individual investors may trade A-shares through local brokers, such as foreign employees of mainland-listed firms or those holding permanent residency permits. Foreign institutional investors can do so if they participate in the QFII programme.
Others must buy A-shares through the Hong Kong stock exchange which has a link with the mainland’s two bourses.
China’s $6.4 trillion stock market has been the focus of the government’s rhetoric relating to liberalisation and reform in recent months. Both of the country’s stock markets, in Shanghai and Shenzhen, however, are in bear markets following a string of economic headwinds for China.