Source: The Wall Street Journal Asia    Date: April 24, 2010

Out-of-towners are stirring up a lot of buzz in the Hong Kong stock market these days.  All are seeking to sell shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Uniting them is the hope they can tap into vast pools of money from Asia and from international investment funds seeking better returns than those on offer in the mature markets of the U.S. and Europe.
Last week, top government officials from Mongolia were in Hong Kong also talking up their interest in the Hong Kong stock market. The country is making a splash in the commodities world thanks to rising interest in its plentiful mineral and energy deposits. It wants to list those holdings, along with infrastructure assets being built to service them, on an overseas exchange. "Hong Kong is a natural choice for us in terms of funding and expertise," Prime Minister S. Batbold told a room of Hong Kong bankers and would-be investors.
Any Hong Kong offerings by state-owned Russian and Mongolian companies likely still are a ways off. And, of course, any cracks in the China growth story—a reversal in the country's property market or a rise in bad loans, for example—could put an end to the giddiness about Hong Kong's appeal as a gateway to Asian growth. Nonetheless, all the talk spells good news for Hong Kong's ambitions as a financial center. It adds, too, to the sense among many here that the center of gravity in global financial markets is shifting toward Asia.