The oddest things about China's $7.4 trillion stock market

China may be somewhat of a mystery to the majority of international investors who will soon find themselves owning mainland shares for the first time.
The country’s main bourse, opened in Shanghai in the early 1990s, is accessible only through a link with Hong Kong or using either of two licences available to institutions like insurers or pension funds, both of which impose quotas and limitations. There will be a third route come Friday, when anyone tracking MSCI Inc’s indexes will be forced to own a piece of the 234 companies that were picked for inclusion this month.

A gauge tracking Shanghai shares has taken quite a beating in the past six days, closing Wednesday at its lowest level since October 2016. While the bearish sentiment hardly bodes well for China’s big debut, it does mean foreigners are getting in at the cheapest valuations in more than two years. Below are seven things that outsiders might find strange about China’s $7.4 trillion equity market, the second-largest in the world.

Asia stocks bounce after losses, dollar sags on weak US inflation data

Asian stocks bounced on Monday after three losing sessions, tracking a firmer Wall Street, while the dollar was weighed down by weak US inflation data which dampened prospects of another Federal Reserve interest rate hike later this year.

Investors awaited a batch of Chinese data due later in the session (0200 GMT), including industrial output and retail sales. The readings are expected to show continued solid growth but markets are edgy after softer-than-expected trade data last week.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.4 percent. The index had fallen for three straight days prior on escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea.

Australian stocks rose 0.2 percent and South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 climbed 0.7 percent.

Japan's Nikkei bucked the trend and fell 1.2 percent as a stronger yen overshadowed much better-than-expected second quarter economic growth.

The three major US  stocks indexes snapped three days of losses and ended higher on Friday, as investors bet on slower US  rate hikes following weaker-than-expected consumer price data. But gains were muted by increasingly aggressive exchanges between Washington and Pyongyang. [.N]
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