Shanghai and Shenzhen traders keep stock markets open amid lockdowns, in lessons for Hong Kong as city grapples with when and how to mass test residents for Covid-19

The stock markets of Shanghai and Shenzhen kept trading, even as schools, restaurants and most public venues were shut down to contain Covid-19

Daily turnover in Shanghai shrank by 12 per cent, while 10.3 per cent was shaved off the value of shares that changed hands in Shenzhen

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A worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) helps transport deliveries of food and other necessities from couriers to residents of neighbourhood placed under lockdown due to Covid-19 in Shanghai, on March 10, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 8:18pm, 14 Mar 2022Updated: 8:48pm, 14 Mar 2022

Stock dealers in Shanghai and Shenzhen have found themselves juggling home chores with their trading jobs, as they keep the world’s second-largest capital market humming along amid a worsening Covid-19 outbreak in both cities.

In the Futian district of Shenzhen, a city of 15 million residents often dubbed China’s Silicon Valley, the paperless stock market kept trading even as schools, restaurants and entertainment venues all over the city went into a weeklong total lockdown.

In Shanghai, where dozens of neighbourhoods were partially sealed across the 16 administrative districts of the megacity of 25 million residents, Huichen Asset Management’s fund manager Dai Ming drove to work to avoid mingling with crowds. The Line 7 and Line 4 subway services that take him from home in suburban Putuo to his office in Lujiazui via the Dongan Road interchange are used by as many as 1 million people everyday.

An extended outbreak of the infectious disease would be “devastating for the recovery of the economy, where many [aspects of] offline and physical consumption have already stalled,” Dai said, adding that working from home (WFH) is the least of his problems.

Benchmark stock indexes of Shanghai and Shenzhen on display on an electronic board at Shanghai’s Lujiazui financial district on Monday, February 7, 2022 upon the resumption of trading after a weeklong Lunar New Year pause. Photographer: Bloomberg

How Shanghai and Shenzhen, with 40 million residents between them, keep their stock markets functioning may offer a lesson for Hong Kong, which has been grappling with when and how to enforce a limited lockdown to enable local health authorities to test residents for the Omicron variant.

“HKEX is committed to operating robust and resilient markets,” a spokesperson at the city’s stock exchange said last week, after the local securities regulator reminded companies to ensure business continuity in the event of a lockdown for mass testing. “Our intention is always to keep markets fully functioning whatever the prevailing environment.”