MSCI to include 234 Chinese A-shares in main indices

China's top liquor maker Kweichow Moutai Co and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China will be among the list of 234 Chinese A-shares that will be included in MSCI's main indices, the New York-based company said today.

Their shares will be added to MSCI's global and regional indices, including the benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets Index, from June 1.

These stocks will represent an aggregate weight of 0.39 percent in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index when included in June.

The list includes Kweichow Moutai Co, ICBC, BOC and China Construction Bank,and brokerages like Guosen Securities.

"The inclusion of A-shares in the MSCI indices is likely to increase the participation of foreign institutional investors," said Ma Lei, portfolio manager at Fidelity International.

"In the medium to long term, this will help make the A-share market more sophisticated and raise its market liquidity. Also, the market will become increasingly driven by fundamentals instead of short-term market factors," he added.

MSCI said in a note that it had added 11 companies and deleted nine from its MSCI China A Inclusion Index.

On June 20, 2017, MSCI first announced the partial inclusion of A-shares in the MSCI China Index, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the MSCI ACWI Index.

China has improved market access for global asset managers, enabling foreign investors to buy shares on the Shenzhen stock exchange, MSCI said, after rejecting for three years China’s previous application for inclusion.