Hong Kong’s total securities market turnover in September was HK$1,593 billion compared to HK$1,516 billion in August. Equities turnover of HK$1,113 billion increased by 8.4% from August to September.
The average daily turnover for the first nine months of 2014 was HK$65.6 billion, a 3% increase over the same period last year.
The average daily turnover of futures and options for the first nine months of 2014 was 0.5% down on the same period for the previous year.
However all may not be rosy. The Hang Seng fell from 25,317 points on 3 September to 22,932 points on 3 October.
Since then, the outlook has clouded further with the protests on Hong Kong streets. Furthermore, market participants to whom we have spoken have said to us that Hong Kong might now be punished by Beijing for its temerity.
One punishment that would affect traders would be a delay in the start date to Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, although that would ostensibly hurt the mainland more than Hong Kong. Another rap on the knuckles could take the form of no further Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) quotas. As we reported yesterday, RQFII quotas in Hong Kong are now completely full.