Kazakhstan’s AIFC discussing stock-trading links with Shanghai, Hong Kong
Cross-border trading connections could start with ETFs, says special economic zone’s governor
The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), a special economic zone in the Kazakhstan capital, is in discussions with Hong Kong and Shanghai’s equity exchanges about the creation of stock connection schemes, most likely starting with exchange-traded funds (ETFs), to widen investors’ access to each other’s markets.
According to AIFC’s governor Renat Bekturov, Kazakh investors’ interest in Chinese companies, from hi-tech behemoths to carmakers, was growing, inspiring organisations in both China and Kazakhstan to copy the success of existing cross-border trading schemes.
At the same time, mainland Chinese and Hong Kong investors would also be keen to own shares of mining companies in his country, the governor added.
An ETF exchange between Kazakhstan and China would be likely to be denominated in the Kazakh tenge and the Chinese yuan, extending a 7 billion yuan (US$982 million) and 200 billion tenge (US$371 million) currency swap agreed in 2014 by the two countries.
Bekturov was in Shanghai to attend a conference focused on capital connection with the mainland’s financial hub, where he met senior government officials, representatives from China’s leading financial institutions and business leaders.