MSCI warns on China shares trading suspensions

Barely a month after approving the inclusion of Chinese shares in its benchmark emerging market index, MSCI is warning that companies in China that suspend trading in their shares for too long risk being dropped, Reuters reports. MSCI’s head of research for Asia Pacific, Chin Ping Chia, said China was an outlier in global markets with too many suspensions in stock trading. He said the US index provider was closely monitoring the 222 China-listed A-shares that will be added to its Emerging Markets Index next year. “If we find a company suspends for a long time, over 50 days, we will remove it from the index, and we will not bring it back to the index again for at least another 12 months,” Chia said. The number of suspended stocks in China is at its highest level in a year after volatility in smaller companies prompted many to halt share trading in order to avert a crash in prices.