A woman watches the Shanghai Composite Index on computer screen in Shanghai
A woman watches the Shanghai Composite Index on a computer screen in Shanghai. The market indices tanked more than 8% when they reopened after an extended Lunar New Year holiday in the darkening shadow of the fast-spreading new coronavirus. Reuters

China has further opened up its domestic share markets for foreign participation, in a bid to ease the tight controls for investments by qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs).

The current level of investment quota for QFIIs in China’s capital markets has been more than doubled by $50 billion to $80 billion, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) announced Thursday.

“In recent years, with an expanding economy and growing capital market in China, the demand of foreign institutional investors to enter the Chinese market continues to increase,” the regulator said.

In 2007, the regulator had increased the quota for foreign participation from $10 billion to $30 billion as a result of the Second China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

The positive news sent the domestic stock markets up, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closing at 2302.24, up 1.74 percent.

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