Hong Kong's financial markets have been in a decade
Here are some major milestones for the city's financial markets:
On October 17, 1983, the Hong Kong dollar was tied to the U.S. dollar, with a trading band of between 7.75 and 7.85 per US dollar imposed since 2005. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority HKMA, the city's de-facto central bank, regularly enters the market to buy or sell currency to keep it within the band.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was the first company to issue IPOs in Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2006 when it issued A-shares and H-shares to raise US $21.9 billion, the largest deal in the world at the time.
In 2014, the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect was created to provide mutual access between the equity markets of Hong Kong and mainland China. Two years later, the programme was expanded to Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Connect, which gave mainland investors access to smaller companies in Hong Kong and international investors access to new economy companies listed in Shenzhen. The connect programmes now cover about 2000 stocks, according to Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission SFC In May, China's securities regulators agreed to include exchange-traded fundsETFs in stock connect programmes with Hong Kong.
In 2017 Bond Connect was launched to replicate the equity schemes and allow foreign investors to invest in China's multi-trillion bond market. In September of last year, China said it would allow its investors to trade offshore debt with the opening of the Southbound leg of its Bond Connect channel.
Residents of Hong Kong and Macau can buy mainland investment products sold by banks in the Greater Bay Area while allowing residents of nine Guangdong cities to buy those sold by banks in the two offshore centres.
com article uk-hkex regulation-idUKKCN 1 G 70 VS it would allow companies with dual-class shares or weighted voting rights if they are considered innovative in a move designed to facilitate listings from emerging business sectors. The decision was described by the law firm Skadden as the most significant change to Hong Kong's listing rules in the last 20 years.
The weighted voting rights changes in 2018 prompted a wave of secondary or homecoming listings - which kicked off with the Alibaba Group in November 2019. The e-commerce giant, founded by Jack Ma, raised $12.9 billion in the deal that was the largest share sale in Hong Kong for nine years. According to Refintiv data, 18 companies have raised $42.3 billion since then. Chinese companies trading in New York prepare contingency plans as U.S. authorities press ahead with delisting firms that don't meet the regulatory requirements for homecoming listings.
HKEX launched its MSCI A-share index futures product in 2021 to meet demand from investors in Chinese stocks for hedging tools at a time of surging volatility.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange allowed Special Purpose Acquisition Corporations, or SPACs, to start trading on January 1, 2022, in line with most major markets in the world.
Retail participation and tight restrictions on the type of investors that could buy into the SPACs and the current bout of market volatility also hurt demand for the products, as well as tight restrictions on the type of investors that could buy into the SPACs.
Only two SPACs have been listed since the beginning of the year.