□ Our reporter Li Yu reports from Hong Kong
A study released by the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission yesterday showed that the stock option market in Hong Kong had the largest growth in size in major markets in the Asia Pacific region in 2007. The considerable growth of this market may be due to a number of unique factors in Hong Kong.
In the first nine months of 2007, the average daily number of contracts traded in Hong Kong's stock option market was 168392, up 129% from 2006. Hong Kong has surpassed Australia to become the most active stock option market in Asia.
The study points out that the rapid growth of the trading scale of stock options in the past two years may be related to a variety of factors, including: the growth of spot market transactions, especially the increase in the number and trading volume of mainland enterprises listed in Hong Kong; Growth of derivative warrant market; Narrow the fluctuation level of stocks and relax the position limit of stock options.
According to the research, some impacts shares The growth factor of the options market is unique to Hong Kong, which may explain why the stock options market in Hong Kong has grown faster than that in other places. For example, a large number of mainland enterprises in Hong Kong are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Narrowing the fluctuation level and relaxing the position limit are measures taken by the local market in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong CSRC CEO Wheatley said that the measures taken in recent years to facilitate market growth were very successful. The SFC will continue to explore more measures to further optimize the Hong Kong market.
However, the study also pointed out that Hong Kong's stock option market is dominated by professional and institutional investors. Despite the rapid growth, the scale of Hong Kong's local stock option market is still small compared with the level of the United States and Europe, which means that the market still has huge growth space.
