China attracts more international investors in opening-up drive

2017-12-05
cgtn.com

China’s latest sovereign dollar bond has been trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for more than a month now.

The first-such-bond-offering-since-2004 has been met with strong investor appetite.

Even without a credit rating, the $22-billion bond offering was over-subscribed by more than tenfold, and it kept up its performance through its opening month.

It is what some market analysts call, a very good testing ground for international interest toward Chinese investment products. Financial and investment banker Ronald Wan said it has reflected that more products will be demanded and other Chinese corporations or Chinese companies can take this opportunity to issue bond products to satisfy the international demand.

As China continues with its process of reform and opening-up combined with the success of the Bond Connect program, more foreign investors, from both the public and private sectors, are starting to invest more in China’s onshore bonds, both in breadth and depth. This is a testimony of growing international confidence in China’s economy.

Standard Chartered China Macro Strategy Chief Beckey Liu told CGTN that in the past, over 70 percent of foreign investment into China’s bond market came from foreign public sector investors such as foreign central banks.

But recently more private sectors, such as global asset managers start to put their money into China’s onshore market. And that in terms of the type, their interested bonds also move from just government and policy bank bonds into other onshore credit and negotiable certificated deposit.

Market observers reported an increased demand from foreign investors for China’s onshore securities in the third quarter of this year. Meanwhile, they also expect foreign portfolio inflows into China’s domestic bond and equity markets to exceed the country’s FDI next year.

The increased inflow of foreign capital is expected to benefit smaller companies as foreign capitals and investors will be working with smaller banks, security and insurance companies.