China's history dates back millennia, but its stock market is just 15 years old. Even so, it has become Asia's second-largest securities market, and is modernizing with dizzying speed. Recent reforms have gone a long way toward opening China's market to foreign investors. For the past two years, a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program (QFII) has allowed international buyers to purchase domestic shares denominated in local currency and traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. Earlier this year, authorities more than doubled the amount of cash foreigners could invest through the QFII program, from $4 billion to $10 billion. In April, regulators announced plans to float $300 billion in government-held shares of China's state-owned enterprises. These shares do not yet trade, but they constitute two-thirds of the market's total capitalization. Getting them into private hands has therefore become the centerpiece of market reform.
展开▼
