Hudson Lockett

More than three-quarters of the foreign money that flowed into China’s stock market in the first seven months of the year has left, with global investors dumping more than $25bn worth of shares despite Beijing’s efforts to restore confidence in the world’s second-largest economy. The sharp selling in recent months puts net purchases by offshore investors on course for the smallest annual total since 2015, the first full year of the Stock Connect programme that links up markets in Hong Kong and…

Zhongzhi, one of the biggest groups in China’s vast shadow financing market, faces a shortfall of as much as $36.4bn and has warned that it is “severely insolvent” in a letter to investors. The worsening situation at Zhongzhi has put the spotlight on liquidity issues in China’s nearly $3tn shadow financing market and its exposure to the country’s property sector crisis. Zhongzhi, a sprawling financial conglomerate, wrote in a letter viewed by the Financial Times that its total assets amounted…

A task force set up by Hong Kong’s government to boost stock market listings and trading activity has urged the territory to focus its efforts on companies and investors in the Middle East and south-east Asia, after outreach to the US and Europe was held back by China’s strict zero-Covid policies. The recommendations, which have not previously been made public, are intended to help increase trading volumes in the Asian financial hub. New listings of Chinese companies in Hong Kong have run dry,…

Chinese authorities have in recent days told some institutional investors not to sell stocks, as regulators face renewed pressure to stabilise share prices following the steep decline in the first weeks of the new year. Since October, market regulators have been providing private instructions — known as “window guidance” — to some investors, which prevent them from being net sellers of equities on certain days. Such restrictions on selling helped to spur a rebound of about 3 per cent for the b…

A punishing sell-off for Chinese equities has worsened in recent days, as international investors who bet on a rebound lose faith that economic stimulus from Beijing is on the way. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index, a closely followed gauge of large Chinese listings in Hong Kong, has dropped about 11 per cent so far this month after losing 14 per cent last year. The benchmark CSI 300 index for domestically traded stocks has shed more than 5 per cent, after taking into account the renminbi’s…

Chinese stocks snapped a three-day winning streak as a pledge from the country’s premier to deliver “more forceful” state support for the market failed to translate into concrete steps to prop up share prices. The benchmark CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed stocks closed 0.3 per cent lower on Friday after posting gains of almost 4 per cent over the previous three sessions, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng China Enterprises index dropped 2 per cent. Shares in China and Hong Kong, w…

Equity purchases by Chinese banks and brokers’ international arms have helped push net flows to the country’s stock market in to positive territory for the first time this year, a shift that helps Beijing in its battle to shore up flagging investor confidence. A Financial Times analysis of data from Hong Kong’s stock connect investment programme shows weekly net inflows of Rmb16.1bn ($2.4bn) in to mainland Chinese bourses as of the market’s close on Thursday. That was enough to take “northboun…

Nicolas Aguzin, the outgoing chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, will depart months earlier than planned, as the stock exchange grapples with low trading activity and a dearth of initial public offerings from China. The early exit by the bourse’s chief executive, announced on Friday, and on the eve of the exchange’s closure for the Chinese new year holiday, will come as Hong Kong fights to maintain its status as a major financial centre. Global investors have increasingly turned…

Chinese regulators are taking measures to keep the renminbi’s dollar exchange rate stable as Beijing seeks to bolster confidence in the country’s currency and economy ahead of a key leadership summit. The moves from authorities — such as holding off on cuts to short-term interest rates and keeping the currency’s dollar trading band firm despite the spot price pushing towards its official floor — have helped to stave off further falls for the currency, which is down 1.4 per cent this year at abo…

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing reported a sharp fall in fourth-quarter profits on the back of subdued trading and fewer new listings for the stock exchange, as outgoing chief executive Nicolas Aguzin acknowledged “turbulent” geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions. Profits at HKEX during the three months to the end of December fell 13 per cent as average daily turnover for equities — a key driver of revenues — dropped 29 per cent year on year to HK$80.4bn (US$10.3bn), even after Hong Kong’s…