His comments ignited a rally on both sides of the border, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advancing 2.8 percent and the Shenzhen Composite Index climbing 2.3 percent. Markets in Taiwan, India and Southeast Asia also rose.
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Mainland shares continued to rise in the afternoon session, while Hong Kong shares started to dip.
Hong Kong and mainland stocks were up strongly by the break on Wednesday after China’s central bank chief announced a trade link between the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges scheduled for later this year. Stock exchange operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. said there is no agreement yet on the proposed second link; its shares jumped almost 9 percent.
Chinese investors were disappointed at the lack of new government moves to boost the flagging economy, dealers said.
In March, China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang said the Shenzhen link would launch at “an appropriate time”, but didn’t set a time frame for launch.
MSCI has said that giving foreigners more access to China’s second-largest equity market, home to many of its small technology companies, is key to getting the nation’s stocks included in global benchmark indexes.
This comes amid intensifying efforts by Chinese officials to win reserve status for the yuan at a review this month.
Meanwhile, on Monday, HSBC Holdings PLC said it would establish a majority-owned securities joint venture in Shenzhen’s free trade zone, as China starts easing restrictions on foreign securities firms operating in its tightly controlled capital market.
“The correction in the market seemed to finish, yet the trading volume is not really high today, just slightly better than Tuesday”. Turnover through Stock Connect has declined on a month-on- month basis every month since June, according to data from HKEx. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose three points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,107 and the Nasdaq composite rose 18 points, or 0.4 percent, to 5,145.
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Yifan Xie contributed to this article.
