China's foreign exchange authority has granted investment quotas totaling 9.995 billion US dollars to 49 qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII), reported Saturday's Shanghai Securities News.

The sum is close to the ceiling of 10 billion US dollars the Chinese government set for QFIIs but three of the 52 registered QFIIs have not yet obtained investment quotas.

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The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) will soon draw up new regulations on QFIIs and increase the total investment quota, the report quoted unnamed analysts as saying.

"The new regulations under consideration may raise the ceiling on securities investment by foreign institutions to five to ten percent of the market value of the yuan-denominated A-share market, meaning 55 billion to 120 billion US dollars will be gradually allowed to enter the A-share market over the next eight to ten years", said the report.

But the report also quoted unnamed experts as saying "the A-share market does not lack capital" and "a sharp increase in the investment quotas is unlikely", considering the currently huge inflows of foreign capital and excess liquidity.

Six QFIIs - including Shinko Securities Co Ltd, HSBC Investment (Hong Kong) Ltd, Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co Ltd and GE Asset Management Co - have acquired quotas totaling 950 million US dollars so far this year.

The Chinese government launched the QFII program in 2003 to allow foreign institutional investors such as UBS and Deutsche Bank to engage in the securities business on the Chinese mainland.

The total investment quota for QFIIs increased from four billion to ten billion US dollars in September 2005.

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