As the Beijing Stock Exchange (BSE) turned one year old on September 3, two new initiatives were announced: a plan for a BSE Index and draft rules on margin financing. With BSE listings totaling 110 and a combined market capitalization of around CNY200 billion, the Beijing bourse, designed as a major platform for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has achieved the desired results over the past year, market watchers and listed companies said. Now, they're hoping for lower thresholds for qualified investors and inflows of more longer-term capital as the BSE continues to race ahead. The anniversary coincided with the Chinese securities regulator's announcement of new initiatives to support Hong Kong's capital markets. Speaking at the China International Finance Annual Forum 2022 on the sidelines of the annual China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), Jin Wei, Vice Mayor of Beijing, vowed to push for the BSE's continued improvement in trading mechanisms, expansion in trading scale, enrichment in trading portfolios and exploration of tie-ups with overseas capital markets. The goal is to turn the young exchange into a major platform for innovative SMEs.
The first index to track the market is named the Beijing Stock Exchange 50 Index, abbreviated as the BSE 50. The index has included 50 stocks considered to be representative of the Beijing market, as measured by capitalization and liquidity. The base value of the BSE 50 has been set as 1,000 on April 29, which was roughly half a year after the bourse opened for trade on November 15. The bourse has plans to compile different indices, as measured by scale, industry, theme and style to create a barometer of innovative SME development. The BSE also said it was soliciting public comments on draft margin financing trading rules through September 17.
The Beijing bourse was registered as a company with capital of CNY1 billion on September 3, 2021, just one day after the Chinese leadership announced the creation of the exchange at the 2021 edition of the services trade fair. The BSE became the “third child” of China's A-share market, in addition to the Shenzhen and Shanghai bourses. The BSE listings' average capitalization was smaller than roughly 95 % of their siblings in Shanghai and Shenzhen. The number of BSE listings is likely to exceed 150 within the year. There's no information so far as to how overseas companies could get listed on the BSE, the China Daily reports.
