Valuation differentials give ETFs advantage

The iShares FTSE A50 China Index ETF has attracted the equivalent of $598 million since the end of May, while the CSOP FTSE China A50 ETF lured $1.88 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The iShares China Large-Cap ETF, the biggest investing in H shares, had almost $239 million of inflows while the H-Share Index ETF posted outflows of $234 million.

"It's a good time to rediscover the value in A shares," Ko Tseng, Hong Kong-based managing director of E Fund Management (HK) Ltd, whose E Fund CES China 120 Index ETF invests in both A shares and H shares, said in an Aug 1 interview.

While China's economic growth accelerated to 7.5 percent in the second quarter, following a two-quarter slowdown, government data on Wednesday showed new credit growth for July plunged to the lowest since October 2008 as industrial output expansion slowed.

Home sales last month declined the most this year as prices and demand weakened.

The Shanghai gauge has rebounded 12 percent from this year's low in January, while the H-shares gauge entered a bull market in July after policy makers took steps to counter the slowdown including accelerating railway spending, allowing cities to loosen property curbs and cutting reserve-requirement ratios for some lenders.

The exchange tie-up will provide opportunities to foreign asset managers to invest in Chinese companies they did not have access to from the H-share market.

Companies such as Baoshan Iron & Steel Co, China's biggest publicly traded steelmaker, and Kweichow Moutai Co, the nation's biggest liquor maker, are only listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

"Where the best companies are in the industry is in the A-share market, not the H," Charlie Awdry, portfolio manager of Henderson Global Investors Ltd's China Opportunities Fund, said by phone from London on Wednesday.

"We would like to go and buy that."

Shanghai-HK stock link enters final testing	Top 10 largest stock exchanges