UK / CHINA – FTSE/Xinhua Index Ltd (FXI), the joint venture company established late last year between leading London based indices provider FTSE and Hong Kong’s independent financial information provider, Xinhua Financial Network (XFN), have launched five new indices for the domestic Chinese market.

International investors will be able to measure the performance of Chinese A + B stocks listed on the Shanghai and Shenzen exchanges, but are more likely to follow the progress of B series shares, since these are the only ones open to them. However, they only currently represent 2% of the market A series are restricted to Chinese nationals, and account for well over 70% of the market.

The indices include the FTSE/Xinhua China A 600, which FTSE/Xinhua claim will become “the definitive headline index for the domestic Chinese market”.

There will be one tradable and one benchmark index for both A + B series plus a sector based index for the A series. The five new indices, alongside the recently launched FTSE/Xinhua China 25 make up the new company’s China index family.

Fredy Bush, FXI chairman and chief executive of XFN comments : “International investors are seeking to gauge the performance of the Chinese market. The index reflects the energy of the China’s financial market and the enthusiasm the international community feels for it.”