Index provider MSCI Inc. said last week it will include China A shares in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the MSCI ACWI Index beginning in June 2018.
That move is seen as beneficial to an array of exchange traded funds, including the VanEck Vectors ChinaAMC SME-ChiNext ETF (NYSEArca: PEK), VanEck Vectors ChinaAMC CSI 300 ETF (NYSEArca: CNXT), iShares MSCI China A ETF (BATS: CNYA) and db X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares Fund (NYSEArca: ASHR).
CNYA tracks an MSCI index composed of Chinese equities listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. Still, global investors have concerns about Chinese equities and the country’s efforts at reforming its economy.
“Policymakers have in fact taken important steps to seek to address China’s problems, particularly since 2013. For example, the government has introduced broad supply-side reforms to curtail overbuilding and unlimited access to credit,” said BlackRock in a recent note.
MSCI plans to add 222 China A Large Cap stocks, representing on a pro forma basis approximately 0.73% of the weight of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index at a 5% partial Inclusion Factor. The MSCI move includes some stocks with listings in Hong Kong and on mainland China.
Investors are coming to grips with the fact that China’s economic growth is not what it was during the go-go days of the emerging markets boom. For an economy often deemed as too hot, steady, consistent growth could be what foreign investors really want to see.