'Watershed moment for global equity investors' as A-shares join MSCI EM benchmarks

'Mispricings due to emotional or herd trading'

Fund managers have welcomed MSCI's decision to include China's mainland domestic shares in its Emerging Markets and ACWI indices for the first time, saying the region is rich with "stockpicking opportunities" for active investors.

In a victory for Beijing's efforts to attract funds into the world's second-largest market, A-shares representing 222 Chinese companies will be added to the Emerging Markets Index, amounting to around 0.7% of the $1.6trn index's value from June 2018, following positive feedback from institutional investors. The CSI300, an index comprising the top 300 stocks on both the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, closed up 1.2% on Wednesday at 3,588, its highest level since December 2015. John Lin, portfolio manager for China equities at AllianceBernstein said the move was a "watershed moment for...