Hong Kong investors will soon be able to tap into Saudi Arabia's 50 biggest listed companies including Saudi Aramco through exchange-traded funds, according to a unit under state news agency Xinhua.
The ETF to be managed by CSOP Asset Management will be listed on the stock exchange in the near future, Xinhua Silk Road said, citing information it gathered during the seventh Future Investment Initiative Conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The investments will cover financial, energy, raw materials, and other industry sectors, the report said.
The launch of an ETF product investing in Saudi Arabia would be a milestone for Hong Kong, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po told the Xinhua unit, as Asian investors can be more engaged in the development of Saudi Arabia and sovereign funds in the Middle East can expand their investments via the SAR.
It comes after recent attempts of the Hong Kong government to invite oil giant Aramco to list in the hub failed.
Saudi Arabia ranks seventh among global stock exchanges with a total market value of US$3 trillion (HK$23.4 trillion).
As of September, the stock exchange Tadawul had 230 public companies with Aramco at the top with a market capitalization of US$2.14 trillion, the third largest in the world after Apple and Microsoft.
Though the MSCI Tadawul 30 Index only fell 7.8 percent this year, Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index has lost 13.6 percent.
