QFII investment quota breaks $8b mark
(Xinhua) Updated: 2006-10-10 16:51
The combined investment quotas of qualified foreign institutional investors
(QFII) broke the 8 billion US dollar mark after the State Administration of
Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said Monday it had granted Credit Suisse a 200 million
US dollar quota.
"With more and more state-owned banks and enterprises embracing the stock
market and the recovery of Chinese capital markets, foreign investment will
continue to flow into China," said a SAFE official.
According to the latest SAFE statistics, QFIIs invested a total of 2.1
billion dollars in China's stock market in the first half of the year.
In the same period, the market saw an inflow of 15.6 billion dollars in
overseas investment, up 108 percent year on year.
Sixteen overseas investors obtained QFII status between January and
September, seven more than for the same period last year.
Forty of the 50 foreign institutions that have QFII status have been awarded
a combined investment quota of 8.05 billion dollars. The 10 billion US dollar
mark will no doubt be reached in the near future.
To facilitate the entry of more QFIIs, the authorities issued new rules in
August, lowering the QFII qualification threshold.
For example, the securities assets requirement for potential QFIIs was
reduced from 10 billion dollars to five billion dollars.
China launched the QFII program in 2003, allowing foreign institutional
investors such as UBS, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup Global Markets Limited to
engage in the securities business on the Chinese mainland.
Statistics show that QFIIs earned more than 2.5 billion dollars in China over
the past three years.
QDIIs, or qualified domestic institutional investors, were launched in 2006
as a counterpart to QFIIs.
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