Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) has been named co-winner of Exchange of the Year in Asia Pacific in Asia Asset Management’s 2026 ETF Awards, recognising its role in strengthening Hong Kong as a regional platform for exchange-traded fund issuance, exchange-traded products and cross-border investment and listed risk management.
Its strategy is centred on three priorities: deepening connectivity between China and international investors; broadening the product set available to issuers and market participants; and building a more integrated ecosystem across cash equities, ETFs, indices and derivatives.
“Building on a strong year in 2025, Hong Kong’s ETP market has entered 2026 with momentum,” says Brian Roberts, HKEX head of equities product development.
Market capitalisation rose 42% in the first four months of 2026 to HK$698 billion (US$89.5 billion), while average daily turnover increased by more than 4% year-on-year to HK$44.0 billion, “cementing Hong Kong’s position as the fourth most actively traded ETP market in the world”, Roberts says.
For HKEX, that growth supports a broader ambition: to position Hong Kong as a marketplace through which global issuers can access Asian demand, Chinese Mainland investors can diversify more widely, and international investors can express China and Asia-related views through established listed infrastructure. The exchange’s ETF agenda is therefore closely aligned with its wider equities-market development strategy, linking product design, investor access and market liquidity.
Roberts says investors are also attracted by “the tax efficiency of Hong Kong-listed ETFs and the overall lower total cost of ownership when trading ETFs here”, reinforcing the market’s competitiveness.
Building connected product ecosystems
HKEX’s ETF strategy is closely tied to the wider development of Hong Kong’s capital markets. Rather than treating ETFs as a separate product category, the exchange is connecting them more deliberately with underlying equities, indices and listed derivatives.
Liquidity in Hong Kong’s cash equities market has grown substantially, with average daily turnover rising to HK$271 billion, up 8% year-on-year.
“HKEX has played a key role by developing connected, multi-asset product ecosystems that link equities, ETFs and derivatives in a deliberate and coherent way,” Roberts says.
This model allows products to develop in clusters rather than in isolation. A thematic index can support ETFs; ETF activity can attract trading and hedging demand; and futures and options can provide further tools for managing the same exposure. The result is a more interconnected and robust market, where product launches are designed to deepen an entire market segment rather than stand alone.
“By design, these markets complement one another, giving investors multiple ways to access, express and manage exposure within a single marketplace,” Roberts says. “As participation deepens, activity in one market reinforces the others.”
For international ETF issuers, Hong Kong’s appeal lies in its combination of product breadth and access to regional and Chinese Mainland demand.
“Hong Kong offers international ETF issuers a combination of connectivity, innovation and liquidity at scale,” Roberts says.
ETF Connect is central to that proposition, allowing eligible Hong Kong-listed ETFs to reach a broader Mainland investor base.
“Through ETF Connect, issuers can access a significantly broader Chinese Mainland investor base, allowing Hong Kong-listed ETFs to participate directly in cross-border portfolio allocation rather than remaining purely local products,” Roberts says.
As of April 2026, there were eight cross-listed ETFs with combined assets under management exceeding HK$15.4 billion. Roberts also points to income, active and risk-managed strategies as areas of expanding product development. Together, these features strengthen Hong Kong’s proposition for issuers seeking both distribution reach and a market structure capable of supporting more specialised ETF strategies.
ETF Connect as a growth engine
Hong Kong’s relationship with Chinese Mainland remains the central structural driver of HKEX’s ETF strategy. The Connect programmes give the city a distinctive role in facilitating two-way capital flows within Asia Pacific.
Roberts describes Hong Kong as an “East-West superconnector”, supported by market infrastructure that enables investors in China and overseas to access one another’s markets more efficiently.
For Southbound ETF trading, where Chinese Mainland investors access Hong Kong-listed products, year-to-date buy and sell average daily turnover reached HK$6.7 billion, up 37.2% year-on-year. On May 6, eight additional Southbound ETFs were included under ETF Connect, taking the total number of eligible Southbound ETFs to 31.
“The continued evolution of ETF Connect is unlocking a new channel for international diversification via Southbound ETFs, with up to 40% allocation to international assets,” Roberts says.
That widens the role of Southbound access, allowing Mainland investors to use Hong Kong-listed ETFs for broader international diversification. It also gives HKEX a differentiated strategic lever: product innovation in Hong Kong can increasingly be connected to distribution opportunities across the border.
At the same time, Hong Kong remains a channel for overseas investors seeking Mainland-related opportunities.
“Hong Kong provides international investors with an efficient and internationally familiar gateway to China-related opportunities,” Roberts says. “Hong Kong-listed ETFs offer transparent access to China exposures within a robust trading and regulatory framework.”
Product innovation and next stage of growth
Product development is another major pillar of HKEX’s strategy. The exchange is seeing demand not only for broad market exposures, but also for more targeted, income-oriented and tactical products.
“Active, outcome-driven strategies have surged, with income-oriented solutions, especially covered call ETFs, recording more than 2,000% AUM growth to HK$34.5 billion,” Roberts says.
Covered call ETFs, launched in early 2024, have seen average daily turnover rise to HK$609 million, around 16 times higher than a year earlier. HKEX has also expanded products aimed at tactical trading and risk management. Single-stock leveraged and inverse products, introduced in 2025, recorded average daily turnover exceeding HK$2.4 billion, up 45 times from the year before.
“We see strong momentum in single-stock-focused products, particularly single stock leveraged and inverse products and single stock options, which reflect Hong Kong’s role as a regional hub for tactical trading and risk management,” Roberts says.
The weekly stock options market is also expanding. Seventeen new WSO classes are being introduced in June 2026, more than doubling the total to 33. Roberts says they now account for about 21% of single stock option trading volume for underlyings with both monthly and weekly expiries, based on April data.
These developments show HKEX seeking growth across both investment and trading use cases. Income-focused ETFs address demand for portfolio outcomes, while single-stock leveraged and inverse products, options and weekly expiries support shorter-horizon strategies, hedging and more precise risk expression.
Looking ahead, HKEX’s strategy is moving beyond ETF market development. The larger objective is to build an integrated listed products franchise in which indices, ETFs, futures, options and cash equities reinforce one another.
“The biggest opportunities lie in deepening Hong Kong’s role as a connected, multi-asset equities and risk-transfer hub,” Roberts says. “Product development is increasingly about building scalable ecosystems, spanning indices, ETFs, cash equities and derivatives, that allow investors to access, trade and manage exposure efficiently.”
He cites the Hang Seng TECH Index as an example, with an actively traded cash market supported by HSTECH ETFs, futures and options. As HKEX expands its index capabilities, including the launch of HKEX Tech 100 and new indices collaborating with exchanges in the region such as Bursa Malaysia and Korea Exchange, Roberts says this will create “a foundation for launching additional ETFs and derivatives, supporting product innovation while building depth and liquidity over time”.
Looking forward, HKEX’s ETF proposition is increasingly anchored in a broader corporate strategy: positioning Hong Kong as a regional centre for cross-border capital flows, product innovation and connected market infrastructure.
