Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Indexes Company plans to nearly double the number of stocks in its flagship benchmark to 100 to make it more widely representative, a move that one market participant describes as “inevitable” to accommodate Chinese shares listed in the city.
The company will select the stocks from seven industry groups, including technology and healthcare, and slash the listing history requirement for inclusion into the 52-year-old Hang Seng Index to three months from the current two years.
The index provider is targeting to raise the number of stocks in the benchmark to 80 by mid-2022 through regular reviews, and cap the total at 100, it says in a statement on March 1.