The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) was established on December 19, 1990, amidst the era of reform and opening up, ringing the opening bell of New China's capital market on the banks of Shanghai’s Huangpu River.

The SSE opened with only eight listed companies with a total market value of 1.23 billion yuan ($180 million). In the past 32 years, the SSE has developed into the world's third-largest stock exchange, with 2,166 listed companies and a total market value of 47.4 trillion yuan as of December 18, according to its website.

The spirit of innovation enables high-quality development

The SSE is infused with Shanghai culture's innovative spirit.

In 2014, it launched the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, creating an effective channel for international investors to join the A-share market. China also launched its first stock options on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2015, offering investors a new hedging tool for trading index heavyweights.

The Sci-Tech innovation board (STAR Market), touted as Shanghai's Nasdaq, was established in 2019, kicking off a trailblazing leg of the country's innovation drive and capital market reform. The first batch of SSE infrastructure public real estate investment trusts (REITs) was approved in 2021.

Shanghai bourse's structural adjustments grow with China's economic transformation

China's economic transformation has allowed the SSE to adjust and transform itself over the past 32 years.

The proportion of information technology and healthcare companies among the companies listed on the Shanghai Stock market has continued to increase, with enterprises in strategic emerging industries accounting for 56 percent of listed companies, Shanghai Securities News reported.

As a result of the STAR Market, companies in the semiconductor industry chain, biomedicine, and other industries have experienced greater listing success.

Adhering to the direction of institutional opening-up

Currently, the SSE leads the internationalization of the domestic securities market.

Following the Shanghai-London Stock Connect, the stock connect scheme was further broadened to include capital markets in Germany and Switzerland.

The SSE issued rules in June to enable foreign institutional investors to directly open securities accounts for participation in bonds on the exchange. Several foreign institutions have participated in trading, further expanding the investment channels for overseas funds, SSE Chairman Qiu Yong said at the SSE Global Investors Conference 2022 in November.

Qiu added that the toolbox for cross-border asset allocation had been enriched. So far, there are 47 cross-border exchange-traded funds on the SSE, totaling over 120 billion yuan, investing in countries and regions such as Hong Kong, the United States, Germany, France and Japan. 

The exchange aims to continue to optimize the cross-border investment and financing system, and strengthen the building of regulatory capacity in an open environment, said Qiu.