Barclays Global Investors will launch an exchange-traded fund based on China A shares next week in Hong Kong, making it the first to provide the non-mainland domestic retail investment base access to that market.
The move comes just before Beijing-based China Asset Management and its partner State Street Global Advisors launches China's first domestic, renminbi-denominated ETF based on a Shanghai Stock Exchange index.
Due to the complicated nature of China's underdeveloped capital market, both the international and the domestic versions face unique challenges. Both BGI and SSgA are confident that they have found ways around these problems. If so it will be interesting to see which firm...