China is on pace to be the world’s best-performing major stock market in 2019, with the benchmark CSI 300 index up by a third this year as investors shrug off the country’s slowing economy and bruising trade war with the US.
Bourses in Shanghai and Shenzhen have added $1.4tn in market capitalisation so far, taking the total value of onshore equities to about $6.8tn this year, buoyed by a revival of domestic investor confidence and continuing international inflows.
The 31 per cent advance by the index of major Shanghai and Shenzhen-listed stocks outpaces the 8.5 per cent rise by the UK’s FTSE 100, the climb of 11.5 per cent by Japan’s Topix and the gain of 22.3 per cent by the US S&P 500.