China urged to open its capital market wider

CHINA should further open up its capital market to foreign institutional investors in order to invigorate the country's equity market, a senior economist said yesterday.

"Investment by overseas institutional investors will add impetus to the development of China's equity market that has stuck in the doldrums despite a robust economy," Chen Xingdong, chief economist with BNP Paribas Corporate & Investment Banking, told a financial forum held by Hexun.com in Shanghai yesterday.

"Long-term investment by foreign institutions will help stabilize the nation's equity market," said Chen, noting that the quota granted under the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) scheme, a main gateway to China's capital market, is still far from enough although the government accelerated QFII approvals.

China issued QFII licenses to seven foreign institutions in November, bring the total number to 199, data from the China Securities Regulatory Commission showed.

Total QFII investment reached US$33.6 billion, accounting for less than 2 percent of the A-share market, compared with 22 percent in the Malaysian market and 36 percent in the Korean market.

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