The chairman of the Hong Kong chapter of the Association of Chartered Licensed Accountants, Stanley Ho, called on Monday for officials to have in thoughts extending shopping and selling hours and introducing an IPO Connect map as half of measures to extra boost the metropolis’s inventory market.
Talking in an interview with RTHK sooner than the upcoming Coverage Handle on Wednesday, he also proposed tweaks be made to the govt.s scholarship schemes to care for abilities and ease the metropolis’s manpower shortage.
Ho’s remarks came because the on every day foundation common turnover on Hong Kong’s inventory alternate rose to HK$248.3 billion in the first eight months of the yr, up by 132 p.c yr on yr, whereas total funds raised by initial public offerings reached HK$134.5 billion – almost six events better yr on yr to notorious as primarily the most globally.
Taking a gape forward, whereas Ho forecasts the inventory market rally will continue at some level of the yr – fuelled by new listings and as extra Chinese language “concept shares” return to the home market, he believes officials can gain extra to extra reduction the rising momentum.
“Extending shopping and selling hours is a delicate choice. Some markets have even talked about they’ll switch to 24-hour shopping and selling in the long bustle.
“However in the occasion you lengthen the hours, there are things to call to mind. No longer every investor will remember the market round the clock – what in the occasion you gain up and a inventory has already plunged?” talked about Ho.
“So how gain we put together that? We must focus on things care for volatility controls and shopping and selling halts; all of that needs to be coordinated.”
Ho proposed that authorities can have in thoughts introducing the so-called “IPO Connect” under the metropolis’s Stock Connect programme, as such an IPO-focused spoiled-border funding mechanism has already been floated by market gamers and investors over the final years.
Below the proposed “IPO Connect” linkage, mainland investors would be allowed to subscribe to Hong Kong IPOs and vice versa, extra deepening the connectivity in the predominant fund-elevating market, which has but to be included in the Stock Connect programme.
Ho holds an optimistic glimpse on the metropolis’s economic outlook for the yr, noting doable curiosity charge cuts by the US Federal Reserve would possibly possibly maybe inject growth momentum into Hong Kong’s economic system and that the metropolis’s annual growth would possibly possibly maybe reach between 2 and 3 p.c – because the govt.predicted.
However he called on the govt.to roll out extra measures to entice and care for abilities – as an earlier govt be taught stumbled on that the metropolis will face a manpower shortage of 180,000 in about three years – by 2028.
“We must resolve out a technique to care for the graduates, getting them to work here to serve Hong Kong,” Ho talked about.
“Remark we can provide extra scholarships. Honest now, we’ve the ‘Belt and Street Scholarship’ for non-native college students, but possibly we can consist of a prerequisite that they’ll most efficient receive the scholarship in the occasion that they care for in Hong Kong and work in certain knowledgeable service industries for 3 to 5 years.
“This methodology, we can entice them to care for in Hong Kong, make a contribution to its economic system, whereas filling in the labour shortage gap.”
