what are china a shares 
china a shares are the stock shares of mainland china based companies that trade on the two chinese stock exchanges the shanghai stock exchange sse and the shenzhen stock exchange szse historically china a shares were only available for purchase by mainland citizens due to china s restrictions on foreign investment however since 2003 select foreign institutions have been able to purchase these shares through the qualified foreign institutional investor qfii system established in 2002 the qfii program allows specified licensed international investors to buy and sell on mainland china s stock exchanges a shares are also known as domestic shares because they use the chinese renminbi rmb for valuation china a shares vs b shareschina a shares are different from b shares a shares are only quoted in rmb while b shares are quoted in foreign currencies such as the u s dollar and are more widely available to foreign investors foreign investors may have difficulty accessing a shares because of chinese government regulations and chinese investors may have difficulty accessing b shares most notably for currency exchange reasons some companies opt to have their stock listed on both the a shares and b shares market due to the limited access of chinese investors to b shares the stock of the same company often trades at much higher valuations on the a shares market than on the b shares market although foreign investors may now invest in a shares there is a monthly 20 limit on repatriation of funds to foreign countries the shanghai stock exchange sse publishes the key performance index for a shares known as the sse 180 index in composing the index the exchange selects 180 stocks listed on the sse the selection is diversified between sector size and liquidity to ensure adequate representation thus the index s performance benchmark reflects the overall situation and operation of the shanghai securities market history of china a sharessince its inception in 1990 including a major reform in 2002 the index has seen great fluctuations however it has grown along with the chinese economy the years 2015 to 2016 were a particularly difficult period with a 52 week performance of 21 55 as of july 20 2016 as china grows from an emerging market to an advanced economy there is substantial demand for chinese equity stock exchange regulators continue efforts to make a shares more broadly available to foreign investors and have them recognized by the global investing community in june 2017 the msci emerging markets index announced a two phase plan in which it would gradually add 222 china a large cap stocks in may 2018 the index began to partially include china s large cap a shares which make up 5 of the index full inclusion would make up 40 of the index it is important for countries such as china to open their markets to global investors to stay competitive and thrive economically china a shares provide an alternative investment for those interested in trading in chinese securities 