The expansion will boost inflows to Hong Kong and mainland China stock markets, but the real game changer will be when mainland investors can invest in secondary-listed Chinese companies in Hong Kong.
A primary listing for the e-commerce company in Hong Kong would not only expand Alibaba’s investor base, but also make the tech giant’s share price a better risk barometer for domestic sentiment in China.
The platform, HKEX Synapse, is aimed at adhering to mainland market’s T+0 settlement cycle and will begin testing in 2021 with pilot users for deployment targeted in first quarter of 2022.
The Shanghai-London scheme expected to launch this year could help local Chinese investors turn their portfolios into more global ones with less regulatory and forex risk.