Volatility and volatility spillovers in Chinese stock markets

Over the last decade, Chinese stock exchanges have experienced rapid growth and development. At their inception in 1991, there were only ten listed companies with a total trade value of 1-2 billion yuan. By the end of 2000, the number of listed companies had increased to 1,063 and the total trade value exceeded 4 trillion yuan, or about 50 per cent of the country’s GDP. The number of registered investors was over 55 million. Trading was fully computerised and could be conducted on screens from the offices of security dealers.