China market round-up: Daiwa to set up China brokerage, FTSE keeps Mainland bonds on watch list, gaming giant plans pork farm

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China market round-up: Daiwa to set up China brokerage, FTSE keeps Mainland bonds on watch list, gaming giant plans pork farm

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In this round-up, Japanese firm Daiwa Securities gets the green light to set up a majority-owned brokerage in the Mainland, FTSE Russell does not include Chinese bonds in its indices and NetEase reveals plans to raise pigs.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) received the application from Japan’s Daiwa Securities to set up an onshore majority foreign-controlled brokerage on Tuesday.

The brokerage, when established, will become the fourth majority foreign-owned brokerage house in China following the ones set up by UBS Securities, JPMorgan and Nomura.

Daiwa will take a 51% stake in the joint venture. Beijing State-owned Capital Operation and Management Center will take 33% and the remaining 16% stake will be held by an undisclosed Chinese shareholder, state-owned China Securities Journal reported.

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In a surprise move, FTSE Russell did not add Chinese government bonds into its flagship World Government Bond Index, the UK index provider announced on Thursday after its annual review.

“China will remain on the watch list for a potential upgrade to Market Accessibility Level 2 based on feedback from index users that the Chinese government bond market continues to make demonstrable progress towards meeting the criteria for the highest accessibility level,” the press release said.

The move followed its inclusion in other major global indexes, including from Bloomberg Barclays and JPMorgan Chase.

“FTSE's comments are consistent with the feedback we have received from investors in US, Europe and Asia,” Danny Suwanapruti, an economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote in a Friday note. “The main concerns we heard from investors revolve around secondary market liquidity, market access, hedging tools and concerns over repatriation and exit liquidity.”

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The Chinese Ministry of Commerce will release 10,000 tonnes of pork from the central reserve in preparation for the upcoming Golden Week national holiday, according to a statement by the ministry on Thursday. Pork price in China has surged as a result of African swine fever.

That’s not all. NetEase, a Chinese gaming giant, is planning to raise more pigs, local media reported.

NetEase signed a co-operation agreement with the Shaoxing municipal government to build its third pig farm, and is aiming to produce half a million hogs a year. NetEase’s entry into pig farms dates back to 2012 when it built the first pig farm in Anji, a city in Zhejiang province.

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China International Capital Corp (CICC) announced its plan to set up a joint venture financial technology subsidiary with internet giant Tencent Holdings, according to a Tuesday announcement. CICC will hold 51% of the shares and Tencent Digital, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent, will hold 49%.

The JV will support CICC’s wealth management business by providing a technology platform and digital solutions.

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Bloomberg announced two enhancements to its trading link with the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS), to facilitate international investors' trading in the Chinese bond market, according to a Wednesday press release.

First, global investors can access real-time prices from all Bond Connect dealers on CFETS via the Bloomberg terminal. Previously, they could only access five of the most competitive prices for a given bond trade.

They will also be able to use an upgraded automated workflow for the CIBM Direct scheme, another access scheme to the Chinese bond market. Orders with all trade allocation details will be automatically routed to the onshore agent bank. Previously, this process was done manually by offshore investors.

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State-owned enterprises collectively earned Rmb39.4tr ($5.5tr) of revenue in the first eight months of this year, according to a Wednesday statement from the Ministry of Finance. That marks a 7.4% increase year-on-year.

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