Hong Kong’s blue-chip Hang Seng Index has added two Chinese companies and removed two local ones, reflecting growing interest in mainland businesses.
Hang Seng Indexes Co said late on Friday it would remove billionaire Li Ka-shing’s (李嘉誠) Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd (長江基建集團) and fixed-line operator PCCW Ltd (電訊盈科) from the list of stocks from which the index is calculated, starting on June 10.
It said it would replace them with Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), operator of the Chinese instant-messaging service QQ, and Aluminum Corp of China(中國鋁業).
The moves raise the index’s number of H-share companies, or China-registered companies traded in Hong Kong, to 10 from nine before the review.
Aluminum Corp of China is an H-share company, while Tencent is a red chip — a company listed and registered in Hong Kong but with most of its assets in mainland China.
The other nine H-share companies in the benchmark index are PetroChina (中國石油天然氣), China Shenhua Energy (神華能源), China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽), China Construction Bank Corp (中國建設銀行), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd (中國工商銀行), Bank of Communications Co (交通銀行), Bank of China Ltd (中國銀行), Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd (平安保險) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (中國石油化學).
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