MSCI expects to include China’s A shares in its global benchmarks after “a few important remaining issues related to market accessibility have been resolved,” the New York-based index provider said in a statement Tuesday.
The inclusion of China’s mainland-traded stocks would be a victory for policymakers after MSCI rejected them last year because of limits on their tradability. Since then, Chinese officials have increased the amount that foreigners can buy and created an exchange link with Hong Kong that offers money managers unprecedented access to onshore equities.
“Demand for Chinese blue chips like banking stocks will increase going forward,” Wu Kan, a money manager at Dragon Life Insurance in Shanghai, which oversees about $3.3 billion, said before the announcement Tuesday.
BlackRock officials said in an e-mailed statement that they “support MSCI’s deliberate process on the inclusion of China A shares into its global indexes, recognizing the practical obstacles that remain for their addition. We believe that the Chinese authorities understand these issues and intend to resolve them quickly.”
Pensions & Investments contributed to this story.
