A-shares sold via Connect hit record

China saw net foreign capital inflows in the first half of the year, though data showed global investors net sold a record 89.6 billion yuan (HK$96.8 billion) of A-shares through the Stock Connect last month.

Zheng Wei, the Deputy Director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said that cross-border capital flows in the capital account are showing a stable and positive trend.

In the first half of the year, there was a net inflow of foreign capital, with an increased purchase of domestic stocks and bonds by foreign investors. Among them, foreign investors purchased nearly US$79 billion (HK$616.2 billion) worth of domestic bonds.

Additionally, the preliminary statistics indicate that China's international balance of payments remained essentially balanced in the first half of this year. The current account surplus reached US$146.8 billion, marking a historically high level for the same period, with a ratio to the gross domestic product of 1.7 percent.

Jin Zhongxia, head of the international department at the People's Bank of China, pledged to enhance the central bank's regulatory capacity as the financial sector opens up.

China's central bank will focus on the task of enhancing the management model for the "pre-establishment national treatment + a negative list of foreign investment," in order to establish a systematic and institutionalized framework for opening up. Pre-establishment national treatment means that foreign investors will receive treatment that is no less favorable than the treatment granted to Chinese domestic investors at the initial stage of entering the market.