There’s a new way to bet on some of the most watched Hong Kong stocks.
The city’s bourse was launching Monday weekly options on the Hang Seng Tech Index, which tracks stocks including Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com that also trade in the U.S. With many of its e-commerce giants losing shimmer in the recent earnings season, the gauge has lost 5.4% this year, compared with a 5.5% gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing is following global peers in expanding its derivatives offerings in a bid to boost trading on a market that’s been lagging in recent years. Concerns over a weaker Chinese economy and the mainland’s growing influence in the city have tanked equities and the market for initial public offerings — once the world’s largest. Yet derivatives have been a bright spot: Trading of futures and options on HKEX has risen in each of the past three years, with the number of total contracts outstanding now at a record of 14.3 million.
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