China's capital market to see record-high foreign investment in 2019: Report

BEIJING - China will attract a large pour of foreign investment in 2019, as the country keeps widening foreign access to its capital market, China Securities News reported Monday.

In 2018, China's capital market welcomed a record-high overseas investment of $120 billion, the newspaper said, citing a report released by the Citibank.

The bank also projects that foreign capital worth $200 billion will flow to China's capital market this year.

The report attributes the rise to more channels open for foreign capital, including the expected rising inclusion factor for China's A-shares in MSCI and the inclusion of Chinese bonds to Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index.

Morgan Stanley's report echoes with that of the Citibank on the issue, revealing that both the bond and stock markets in China will see an enormous inflow of foreign capital.

China's A-share market is expected to embrace an overseas investment totaling in a range between $70 billion and $125 billion this year, while its corporate bonds will see an inflow of $300 billion to $400 billion by 2030, said Morgan Stanley's report.

An analyst with Japan's Mizuho Bank said that Shanghai-London stock connect program will also catalyze more foreign capitals to Chinese A-shares.

On Feb 12 this year, China rolled out new rules to support equity incentives for foreign employees at domestic listed firms in its latest effort to further open up its capital market.