International investors’ concerns about the quality of mainland China’s markets have once more put paid to hopes that MSCI would finally include the world’s second largest markets in its globally-followed indices.
The index provider had raised expectations that it would accept mainland A-shares when it laid out a “roadmap” for inclusion in March. But on Tuesday it said “international institutional investors clearly indicated that they would like to see further improvements in the accessibility of the China A shares market before its inclusion in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index”, write Nicole Bullock in New York and Jennifer Hughes in Hong Kong.
Including mainland shares would have been seen as a vote of confidence in China’s market development after Beijing introduced several market reforms following last summer’s rout, when its heavy-handed approach and companies’ ability to suspend their shares at will unnerved international onlookers.