New cross-border index to be launched

CES China 120 Index to track HK & mainland listed-firms' performances

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEx), the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange will introduce the first cross-border equity market index to tap the growing demand of investors seeking exposure to mainland assets.

The CES China 120 Index, the first index in the new CESC Cross Border Index Series, covers 40 HKEx-listed mainland companies as well as 80 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges.

The selected companies will be chosen based on the following criteria: they are listed for over three months; they are ranked as the top 50 percent by average daily turnover and their capitalizations are among the top 80 for mainland-listed A Shares/ranked as the top 40 for Hong Kong-listed H-Shares respectively.

The selected mainland companies will also be chosen on the basis they are incorporated on the mainland, or their major operations centers are situated on the mainland, or more than 50 percent of their business revenues are generated on the mainland.

The CES China 120 Index will be launched on Dec 10 this year and the sub-indices of CES China HK Mainland Index and CES China A80 Index will be introduced shortly.

"As the interaction and correlation between Hong Kong and mainland share markets are increasing, we think we can tap the market demand for the cross-border equity indices because many investors are interested in the mainland assets listed in the city or on the mainland," CESC Chief Executive Bryan Chan said at the Tuesday press conference.

CESC is a joint venture formed and equally owned by the HKEx, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The joint venture was officially launched in September and commenced operations in October. The company is designed to contribute to the mainland capital market's development.

Chan envisaged that the launch of the CES China 120 Index would elicit the provision of various financial products in the future.

"There are already some mutual fund managers (who) are showing interest toward the new index, however whether there will be exchanged traded funds that track the CES China 120 Index will depend on the product development capabilities of the mutual fund industry," Chan said.

"We also expect that some financial derivative products that track CES China 120 Index as the underlying asset may emerge in the market next year, depending on the relevant regulatory framework toward financial derivative products on the mainland," Chan added.

Chan said that the CESC will enrich the product mix's compilation process in the future to include other mid-cap or small-cap size A and H Shares to facilitate the launch of the mid-cap or small-cap cross-border equity indices. CESC will also consider companies without mainland business backgrounds to be included in the future cross-border index compilation.

The CES China 120 Index will be mainly geared toward financials (48 percent), energy (15 percent), consumer staples (7 percent) and industrials (6 percent).