The investment industry, however, has already started its preparations. Their plan is to create a new set of indices for international investors. China has argued that it needed to keep foreign investors at bay while its young markets took root. The argument against opening up now looks thin. The initial public offering on December 12th of Baoshan, China's largest steel maker, was the biggest in local currency so far, and was followed a few days later by the first IPO of a bank, China Minsheng, a soaring success.
China has a growing middle class who are discovering the thrills of buying shares.
International investors with a taste for China preferred those companies listed in Hong Kong. The only thing cooling investors' enthusiasm is the uncertainty over timing. The biggest problem in merging the two classes of shares is that the yuan is not convertible. Any proper convergence, therefore, may have to await even more complicated economic reforms and convertibility. Judging by the recent boom in B shares, however, many brokers now expect that convergence to happen in one or two years' time.