Global credit rating provider Standard & Poor's (S&P) and China's financial service giant CITIC Securities launched a joint venture index services company yesterday, anticipating increased demand for new investment products in China's financial markets.

The Standard & Poor's / CITIC Index Service Ltd, which is 50 per cent owned by each side and will be managed by S&P, aims to further enhance the leading position of existing S&P/CITIC-branded indices as performance benchmarks for China's securities market.

The joint venture also plans to develop new indices to meet the needs of local and international investors, the companies said without mentioning specific products.

"With China's rapid integration into the global financial markets, we expect increasing demand for innovative Chinese investment products that meet global standards," said Kathleen Corbet, president of S&P.

"Standard & Poor's, together with its partners, can play an important part in supporting this process."

In March 2004, New York-based S&P and CITIC Securities jointly launched the S&P/CITIC 50 A-share tradeable index and S&P/CITIC 300 A-shares benchmark index. The latter is now one of the most widely used benchmark indices, with 13 companies and 19 funds tracking performance against the S&P/CITIC 300.

International financial companies, such as S&P and Morgan Stanley, are paying more attention to the index business in China as the local market increasingly integrates into the global market.

Chinese financial authorities are taking a more aggressive stance toward the development of the capital market, hoping it will play a bigger role in raising funds for businesses so as to reduce the local economy's reliance on the banking sector.

Although progress in financial innovation has been slower than the market needs, analysts are anticipating more key products this year, such as the much-discussed stock index futures, which would be based on benchmark indices.

Lax supervision and rampant irregularities led to scandals in the futures market in the early 1990s, making regulators cautious about risks of new financial products. Products such as treasury bond futures were eventually banned.

But as a major reform of non-tradeable shares proceeds, promising to revive a long-bearish stock market, analysts say index-based products are expected to come out soon.

"Based on the consensus that financial derivatives are indispensable in reviving the market, we believe index-related products will be launched in the near future," said Wang Dongming, chairman of CITIC Securities.

Wang said he anticipates initial public offerings to be resumed in the second quarter of the year, after they were suspended in the middle of last year to give way to the reform of non-tradeable shares.

CITIC Securities executives said the indices launched with S&P are not making any profit for the time being, but said the prospect of profit is bright.

Source: China Daily