Overseas investors increase buying in China's capital market despite epidemic

BEIJING - Foreign buying in China's A-share market has remained robust despite short-term impacts brought by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, market data showed.

By Wednesday, a total of 67.7 billion yuan ($9.7 billion) has been invested through the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect into China's A-share stock market this year, according to financial data provider Wind.

The six-week capital inflow is equivalent to nearly 20 percent of last year's total amount, the data showed.

Meanwhile, global index provider MSCI has announced to add six more Chinese A-shares to the MSCI China A Onshore Index from Feb 28, including transport giant Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway which debuted on the A-share market in mid-January.

Leading global multi-asset index, data and analytics provider FTSE Russell is also set to complete the phase one inclusion of Chinese A-shares to FTSE Global Equity Index Series (FTSE GEIS) as a secondary emerging market in late March.

As of March 23, 25 percent of the investable market capitalization of eligible large-, mid-, and small-cap China A-shares will be added to the FTSE GEIS and derived indexes, according to FTSE Russell.

The FTSE inclusion is expected to attract an additional inflow of about 4 billion dollars to the Chinese market, market analysts said.

Guangfa Securities said experience from other markets suggests that foreign capital would keep flowing in as global recognition on market openness grows, expecting an average annual influx of 300 billion to 400 billion yuan in the next 10 years.