[Courtesy of KRX]
The Korea Exchange (KRX), South Korea’s main stock operator, said on Friday that it has agreed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) to study a plan to launch a link between the two bourses for trading stocks and bonds.
"The Korea and Shanghai stock exchanges agreed to research to link stock and bond trading as a longer term project," KRX said in a statement.
The development is a boon to investors, banks and brokerage firms that have long sought to benefit from a rush of requests to trade stocks and bonds of the two countries, analysts say.
Since it was delisted from the public entity list in January, the KRX has been gearing up to issue an initial public offering to raise money for expansion and to finance potential mergers and acquisitions abroad.
The KRX has also pushed hard to enhance global competitiveness through alliances with global stock operators.
The Financial Services Commission, South Korea’s financial watchdog body, is currently working on revising the capital market law in order to convert the KRX into a holding company and its individual markets such as the benchmark KOSPI and the tech-laden KOSDAQ into affiliated companies.
China has already launched a cross-border stock trading link between Shanghai and Hong Kong and is studying the possibility of a trading link between London and Shanghai.
South Korea has made big strides to deepen its economic co-operation with China, the country’s biggest trading partner. Last year it launched direct trading between the yuan and the South Korean won, and this year signed a free trade agreement with Beijing agreed to
set up funds aimed at supporting companies seeking to enter markets in other countries.
The South Korean government is to issue 3 billion yuan worth of 3-year bonds next Tuesday in China's domestic interbank bond market, becoming the first foreign country to issue so-called Panda bonds, market sources said.
By Alex Lee
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
