Hong Kong stocks to get a boost from China's clampdown on outflows

Mainland investors will turn to buying Hong Kong stocks through cross-border exchange links.

According to Bloomberg, as China tightens its grip on capital controls, one state-sanctioned haven from a weakening yuan is drawing attention. Mainland investors will turn to buying Hong Kong stocks through cross-border exchange links as other ways of purchasing overseas assets become more difficult, said Kenny Tang, vice chairman at Jun Yang Financial Holdings Ltd. An increase in flows would provide a boost to a stock market that has trailed global peers over the last four years, he said.

Policy makers stepped up measures to stem outflows as the yuan suffered its worst annual loss against the U.S. dollar in more than two decades, including requiring extra documentation from individuals converting yuan and blocking the use of Chinese bankcards to buy insurance products in Hong Kong. As a high-profile part of President Xi Jinping’s pledge to integrate China’s financial markets with the world, the Shenzhen and Shanghai bourse links aren’t facing the same threat, even with money flowing into Hong Kong so far in 2017 outpacing cash being sent the other way.

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