If one institution epitomises the travails and triumphs of Hong Kong, and the risk-taking and enterprising nature of its people, it is the stock exchange. Its world-famous Hang Seng Index is a key benchmark for international investors. Its ups and downs track Hong Kong’s economic highs and lows. People become euphoric when it hits records and downtrodden when it crashes. It is a thermometer of the psyche of our people.

But Hong Kong did not always have one centralised bourse; it used to have four. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the merger of the four smaller exchanges. Since then, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) expanded further, essentially becoming what it is today by taking over the futures market and its related clearing houses to form HKEX in 2000.

The index itself has moved with the times, having gone from the dominance of British hongs and banks such as HSBC and then local developers controlled by big-name property tycoons, to Chinese state-owned behemoths and today’s world-conquering tech giants.

For many years, the city was the world’s leading market for initial public offerings (IPOs). HKEX lost that crown for a few years after the Covid-19 crisis but regained it last year.

It is upgrading to boost its competitiveness as a leading IPO destination and a fixed-income and commodities-trading hub. It has launched the highly popular Stock Connect with its mainland counterparts, reformed listing rules to allow promising firms to seek IPOs and allowed trading through severe weather.

It is branching out to partner with exchanges in the Gulf states and those in Central Asia. City leader John Lee Ka-chiu is visiting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan – two key resource-rich countries under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative – to explore new business opportunities, bringing with him the largest business entourage of his time in office. It will include HKEX CEO Bonnie Chan Yiting. She has said on record that Central Asian companies should consider secondary listings in Hong Kong for its easy access and deep liquidity.