China Life wird künftig mit 3,47 % im Hang Seng Index gewichtet sein. Damit dürfte auch die kurzfristige Konsolidierung beendet sein und es dürfte sich weiteres Aufwärtspotential ergeben.
By Rita Chang and Ruth Wong HONG KONG, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (1398.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) and China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (2628.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) will join Hong Kong's benchmark stock index, underscoring the growing influence of mainland Chinese firm on Asia's second-largest exchange. China's largest lender and its biggest insurer will join the index's other Hong Kong-listed, mainland incorporated firms, or H-shares, on March 12 in a widely expected emove. But in a surprise move to make room for an ever-expanding list of such firms on the exchange, the index's overseers said on Friday it would gradually raise the number of Hang Seng index <.HSI> components to 50 over time. HSI Services Ltd. also said it would abolish a cap on H-share firms in the index, now set at five. Hong Kong in past years has evolved into the favourite capital-raising venue for Chinese firms seeking cash to expand or hoping to build a presence on an international market. "That was a duct tape solution," said Kent Yau, deputy research director at Core Pacific Yamaichi International (HK). "Going forward, we should not have quotas for H shares because they're getting more popular and heavily weighted in the market." The revision would bring the weighting of China plays, which accounted for about 60 percent of the market's total volume at the end of January, to about 33 percent. "Our objective is to let the Hang Seng index be market representative. If the number of H shares increases, they should get a bigger representation in the index," said Vincent Kwan, general manager of HSI Services. The addition of ICBC and China Life brings the number of Hang Seng index constituents to 38 as they join their H-share peers Sinopec Corp. (0386.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) (SNP.N: Quote, Profile , Research) (600028.SS: Quote, Profile , Research), China Construction Bank Corp. (0939.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) and Bank of China Ltd. (3988.HK: Quote, Profile , Research)(601988.SS: Quote, Profile , Research). Assuming a passive HSI-tracker fund size, as estimated by BNP, of about HK$45.6 billion (US$5.8 billion), passive buying would translate to about an estimated HK$2.8 billion for ICBC and HK$1.7 billion for China Life. SHARE OVERHANG HSI Services warned that any constituent with low liquidity and turnover would be dropped, but did not name any to which this applies. H-share companies such as PetroChina (0857.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) (PTR.N: Quote, Profile , Research) and Bank of Communications (3328.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) have been precluded from entering the blue-chip gauge due to an overhang of unlisted share capital. But there are now 34 H-share companies that have completed share reforms by way of listing government-owned stock on the domestic A-share market and more are on the way. Of those 34, three were already in the index. With ICBC and China Life due to join in March, 29 more H-share firms would be eligible. HSI Services also revised the China Enterprises index of H shares <.HSCE> to include China Communications Services Corp. Ltd. (0552.HK: Quote, Profile , Research), ICBC (1398.HK: Quote, Profile , Research), China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. (1800.HK: Quote, Profile , Research), China Coal Energy Co. Ltd. (1898.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) and China Merchants Bank (3968.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) (600036.SS: Quote, Profile , Research). Huadian Power (1071.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) was removed from the H-share index. This brings the number of firms in the H-share index to 41, up from 37. The addition of ICBC and China Life on March 12 will coincide with the implementation of the second phase of HSI Services' landmark index reform announced last year. During this period, individual stock weightings will be cut to 20 percent from 25 percent, a rule that only affects heavyweight HSBC Holdings Plc. (0005.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile , Research). A free-float-adjusted factor will also be applied to existing constituents, which calls for China Mobile Ltd.'s (0941.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) (CHL.N: Quote, Profile , Research) weighting to drop to about 16 percent from about 21 percent. If the changes were to have taken effect on Feb. 7, ICBC would command a weighting of 3.06 percent and China Life a 3.47 percent weighting in the Hang Seng index.
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