Chinese Financial Markets

618 Words2 Pages

The launch of stock index futures is a milestone in the development of Chinese financial markets. In the past few years, Chinese stock market was characterized as one of the most dynamic developing markets, and also the most volatile one. It rose about 97 percent in 2007, then plunged more than 65 percent in 2008 and rebounded about 80 percent in 2009. The investors and regulatory authorities hope that introduction of stock index futures trading will help increase liquidity in the stock market, reduce market fluctuations and hedge risks.

As financial futures have just been launched in China, the effect of financial derivatives trading on the underlying stock markets has been of great interest to both investors and regulators. Considering the beginning stage of futures trading, related researches and empirical results in developed derivatives markets will not only help assess the economic usefulness of derivatives markets but also help build a more effective and stable market in China. This paper purports to contribute these aims by introducing some empirical researches in Korean derivatives market and discussing implications to Chinese markets.

This paper will mainly discuss on the following two topics related to the stock index futures. First, derivative trading offers a strong welfare effect to the market and economic growth by risk shifting mechanism and the price discovery facility. Transfer of risk enables market participants to expand their volume of activity. It gives sure opportunity to develop the financial system and the macro economy. Also, in a market where information asymmetry and market friction are recognized, derivatives trading gives a better opportunity to earn money from the information differences and hence...

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...ing, and its implication to the Chinese market. Chapter 5 concludes the paper.

Works Cited

Brorsen, B. W., 1991, Futures Trading, Transaction Costs, and Stock Market Volatility, Journal of Futures Markets 11, 153-163.

China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) Annual report 2008, CSRC

Cox, C.C., 1976, Futures Trading and Market Information, Journal of Political Economy 84, 1215-1237

Jae Ha Lee, February 2002, Index Arbitrage with the KOSPI 200 Future

Leading Futures Market KRX, Korea Exchange

Ross, S. A., 1989, Information and Volatility: The No-arbitrage Martingale Approach to Timing and Resolution Irrelevancy, Journal of Finance 44, 1-17.

Sung C. Bae, Taekho Kwon, and Jongwon Park, 2004, Futures Trading, Spot Market Volatility, and Market Efficiency: The Case of the Korean Index Futures Markets, Journal of Futures Markets 24, 1195-1228

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