Chinese securities firms gear up for stock market opening
Chinese securities firms are gearing up for Tuesday's stock market opening, as domestic investors are lining up to open new stock accounts following a stock rally driven by policy stimulus measures days before the weeklong National Day holidays.
A staff member of a Guangzhou-based securities firm in South China's Guangdong Province told the Global Times on Monday that some employees of the company's wealth management, brokerage business and IT departments were on duty during the Golden Week, which ran from October 1 to October 7 (Monday), to facilitate new stock account openings and to ensure the normal operation of the technological systems.
"During the weeklong holidays, reservations to open new stock accounts surged by about 150 percent month-on-month, mostly from the post-1980s and post-1990s generations," the Securities Times newspaper reported on Sunday, citing a manager with Shanghai-based Sinolink Securities Co.
Due to a recent surge in securities account openings driven by market trends, the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation opened its account platform and identity verification system on Sunday, one day earlier than scheduled, to manage the high volume of account reviews, according to media reports.
The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges conducted tests on their platforms on Monday to ensure a smoother trading experience, as the combined turnover of the two bourses surged to 2.6 trillion yuan ($270.45 billion) on September 30, the last trading day before the seven-day National Day holidays.
While the A-share market was closed during the National Day holidays, shares trading in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region gained momentum.
On Monday, the Hong Kong stock market extended its three-week rally, with the Hang Seng Index closing up by 1.6 percent.
"Given the strong stock market performance in Hong Kong, the upward momentum may continue and the A-share market will likely open higher on the first trading day after the National Day holidays," Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund, told the Global Times.
Recently, the country's central bank, top securities regulator and financial regulator announced monetary stimulus measures as well as property market support and capital market strengthening measures, to foster China's high-quality economic development.
"The strength and timing of this round of policy rollouts exceeded the expectations of both domestic and global investors," Yang said.
UBS has announced an upward revision of the year-end target price for the MSCI China Index -- an index that captures large and mid cap representation across China's stock market -- to $70, reflecting improvements in policy coordination, US rate cuts and progress in corporate governance reforms, according to a note UBS sent to the Global Times on September 30.