The widely anticipated Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect debuted during Monday’s Asian session with an enthusiastic reception as investors purchased the maximum allotment of shares.
Mainland investors used about 20% of their yuan quotas as over $2 billion flowed into A-shares equities, which prompted a trading halt so that market makers could process all of the orders. The reaction by U.S.-listed A-shares exchange traded funds, however, has not been impressive to this point indicating that Monday’s action in ETFs, such as the Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares Fund (NYSEArca: ASHR), could be a case of “sell the news” behavior. [A=Shares ETFs Look to Stock Connect Debut for More Upside]
Shares of ASHR, the largest U.S.-listed A-shares ETF, are off by nearly 3% on heavy turnover today after hitting a new all-time last Friday. Other A-shares ETFs are struggling as well. The KraneShares Bosera MSCI China A-Shares ETF (NYSEArca: KBA) and the Market Vectors ChinaAMC A-Share ETF (NYSEArca: PEK), the oldest U.S.-listed A-shares ETF, are both down more than 2%.
With the debut of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, more Hong Kong investors were seen gobbling up mainland shares rather than the reverse scenario, according to Bloomberg. That is weighing on some well-known China ETFs that hold H-shares, or the stocks that trade in Hong Kong.
For example, the iShares China Large-Cap ETF (NYSEArca: FXI), the largest China country-specific ETF, and the iShares MSCI China ETF (NYSEArca: MCHI) join ASHR and PEK among the five worst-performing non-leveraged ETFs to this point in Monday’s session.
ASHR’s declines and those of its rivals may simply be a case of profit-taking and, more specifically to ASHR, the ETF coming back in line with its net asset value after closing at a noticeable NAV premium last Friday. ASHR’s closing NAV last Friday was $27.15, according to issuer data, but the ETF’s market price close 4% above NAV.