FOREIGN investors’ holdings of Chinese stocks and bonds have jumped to more than US$800 billion as they bought assets in the country at a record pace, the Financial Times reported yesterday.

Global investors have bought a net US$35.3 billion in Chinese stocks in the year to date via trading platforms that link Hong Kong with exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen, an increase of 49 percent compared with a year earlier, the newspaper quoted calculations based on Bloomberg data as saying.

Foreign investors have also bought more than US$75 billion in Chinese bonds in the year to date, according to figures from Credit Agricole, up 50 percent from a year ago.

The newspaper said foreign investors’ enthusiasm for Chinese assets has been fueled by the country’s swift rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“From an asset management point of view, you cannot avoid looking at the Chinese market,” Andy Maynard, a trader at investment bank China Renaissance, told the newspaper.

Inflows to Chinese markets have surged in recent years, partly because of the inclusion of yuan assets in global stock and bond indices that are tracked by trillions of dollars worth of assets, according to the newspaper.

In March, FTSE Russell became the latest foreign indices provider to confirm plans to include Chinese government debt in its global bond index, a move that Nomura has forecast will funnel more than US$130 billion into China.

(SD-Agencies)