Banks still gauging appetite for new products
Mainland individual investors, who last week won indirect access to overseas stock markets, have yet to show interest in the new freedom as they mull disincentives ranging from the high minimum required investment to potential gains that could still be made in domestic shares.
Banks are also weighing the appetite of potential clients before launching new products under the expanded qualified domestic institutional investors scheme.
The mainland banking regulator on Friday said that it would allow banks to offer products with an investment minimum of 300,000 yuan, of which up to 50 per cent could be invested in overseas stocks. Hong Kong stocks are the only option.
Lu Xiaohua, a VIP customer of Citic Securities in Beijing, said he was not interested in taking advantage of the new QDII policy.
'You never use a strong currency to buy weak ones,' he said, contrasting the strengthening mainland yuan with a Hong Kong dollar tied to the US currency. 'You just never do that.'
