HONG KONG’S second stock trading connect with the mainland may be followed by links for initial public offerings (IPOs), bonds and commodities, said Charles Li, chief executive officer of the operator of Hong Kong’s stock exchange.

    Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. (HKEX) yesterday unveiled a link with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange two years after the start of the first with the Shanghai exchange. Li said that the two could be followed by a series of programs that would open up different parts of the financial market.

    “The next step is to see whether that secondary market connect can be extended potentially to primary connect,” Li said. “Beyond equity, we are building a bond connect and a commodity connect.”

    Other links between Hong Kong and the mainland may not look exactly like the stock programs, according to Li.

    “The word ‘connect’ in different asset classes can mean slightly different things,” he said. “Some of them can mean cross-listings, some mean developing benchmarks, others mean mutual recognition.”

    Li said the second link should boost China’s case for inclusion in MSCI Inc.’s global benchmarks. The index compiler declined to add mainland-listed shares in June.

    “The fact you have a huge market like Shenzhen that is not available until today, now you remove one more big block of the few blocks that are still in the way,” he said. (SD-Agencies)