Beijing Stock Exchange launches corporate bond trading in milestone for US$21 trillion debt market
- US$347 million of bonds sold by three state-backed investment companies started trading on China’s newest bourse
- Bonds sold by Guangzhou Zhidu Investment Holdings, one of the three issuers, did not see any transactions
The Beijing Stock Exchange has kicked off trading of corporate bonds, giving a boost to China’s 150 trillion yuan (US$21 trillion) debt market, as the mainland’s newest bourse expands its array of products beyond equities.
Three bonds, issued by state-backed investment companies, debuted on Monday, a milestone for the two-year-old exchange that hosts 241 companies, mostly innovative start-ups, with a combined market capitalisation of 382.9 billion yuan.
The Beijing exchange, a minnow compared with the three-decade-old Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses, has been in the limelight over the past few months as it enjoys a raft of policy measures, such as regulators’ pledge to build it into a world-class entity and bolster the quality of listings.
A gauge tracking the bourse’s 50 biggest stocks bucked the loss on the broader market last year with a gain of 15 per cent, the lone bright spot in China’s US$9 trillion onshore stock market.
The start of corporate bond trading is a step towards building the exchange’s bond market, Zhou Guihua, the bourse’s chairman, said at the bonds’ listing ceremony on Monday.
“The commencement of the bond market is a starting point for building up the Beijing exchange with high quality, which will also add new vigour to the development of China’s bond market,” he said.