OREANDA-NEWS. The seven sector index futures contracts to be rolled out by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) on Monday, 9 May 2016 will enable investors to gain exposure to a basket of stocks in a key segment of Hong Kong's securities market.

There are four futures contracts on Mainland-related sectors, two on technology stocks and one linked to gaming stocks.  The gaming index futures will be the world's first futures on that sector.  The underlying index includes several companies from Macau's gaming industry, the world’s largest gaming industry by revenue.

Underlying indices

  • CES Gaming Top 10 Index (CESG10)
  • Hang Seng Mainland Oil & Gas Index (HSMOGI)
  • Hang Seng Mainland Bank Index (HSMBI)
  • Hang Seng Mainland Healthcare (HSMHI) 
  • Hang Seng Mainland Property Index (HSMPI)
  • Hang Seng IT Hardware Index (HSITHI)
  • Hang Seng Software & Services Index (HSSSI)

Index constituents must meet market capitalisation and liquidity requirements, and their weightings are capped to prevent a single stock from having too large an influence on the performance of the index.  The five largest constituents and their weightings along with more information on the new products is available on the HKEX website.  Further information on the indices is available at the following websites: Hang Seng Indexes, China Exchanges Services Company.

"Our sector index futures will give investors a low cost and capital efficient way to gain exposure to large stocks from a key sector of our securities market," said Li Gang, HKEX's Co-head of Market Development.  "They cover businesses with long histories such as oil and gas, property and banking, as well as software and healthcare, two leaders of the new economy."

"The seven contracts we are introducing next week will expand our strong stock index futures business, where average daily volume in the first four months of this year was up more than 40 per cent from a year ago," said Romnesh Lamba, HKEX's Co-head of Market Development.

HKEX hosted seminars on the new products for its Future Exchange Participants on 20 and 26 April and will hold a third seminar along with a cocktail reception in the early evening on 9 May.