How to buy Hong Kong shares in the UK

Five steps to buying Hong Kong shares in the UK

1. Choose whether you want to trade or invest in Hong Kong shares
2. Open an account
3. Understand the charges of buying Hong Kong shares in the UK
4. Choose the Hong Kong shares you want to buy
5. Buy Hong Kong stocks

Choose whether you want to trade or invest in Hong Kong shares

There are two ways you can get exposure to Hong Kong stocks – you can either invest in them directly via our share dealing service, or you can trade them using derivatives such as CFDs.

When you invest, you put up the full value of the shares upfront to buy them outright. You then own the physical shares, meaning you can benefit if their price goes up. By owning shares, you could receive dividend payments if the company offers them, and you may also have voting rights in company matters.

Trading, on the other hand, only requires a deposit known as margin – which is a small percentage of the full value of the trade – to open a position. And, you can speculate on rising or falling share prices, because you don’t own the underlying asset.

Open an account

You can open your account online – on our website or via our app. If you’d prefer to trade on a share’s price movements, you can open a live trading account instead. Alternatively, you can build your confidence with a demo account, which offers £$200,000 in virtual funds.

Understand the charges of buying Hong Kong shares in the UK

If you’re looking to invest in Hong Kong stocks, you’ll pay a minimum commission of HKD100 to open a position. We’ll automatically convert your pounds into HKD for just a 0.5% fee. There may be other charges and taxes including custody fees, additional services and physical share certificate costs.

Choose the Hong Kong shares you want to buy

China is considered the manufacturing hub of the world, offering a plethora of gaming, technology and fintech stocks – to name a few. These include:

• Chinese insurance giants AIA Group and Ping An
• The famous tech trio known as BAT – Baidu Inc, Alibaba and Tencent Holdings
• Automotive holdings company Geely
• Top banks such as Bank of China (BoC), China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

You can use our stocks screener tool to see price charts, historical data, market sentiment and analysis on the stocks you’re interested in.

Open an account to get started

Buy Hong Kong stocks

Once you’ve created an account and you’ve decided which Hong Kong stocks you’re interested in, you can start buying shares. If investing via share dealing, you can buy shares ‘at quote’ or ‘on exchange’. If trading via derivatives, you’ll ‘buy’ the market to open a long position, or ‘sell’ to open a short one.

Whichever method you choose, you can monitor your open positions on your workspace from within our platform. Any running profit or loss will move in line with the underlying share prices. When you’re ready to close your position, you can click on the open position and select ‘sell’ or ‘close’.

Buying Hong Kong shares summed up

• You can buy or trade Hong Kong stocks if you live in the UK
• Investing in shares outright requires a share dealing account, while speculating on their price requires a leveraged trading account
• When investing, you’ll put up the full value of the shares upfront. When trading with leveraged products like CFDs, you’ll only put up a margin
• Charges for buying Hong Kong shares with us start from as little as HKD100
• There are many notable Hong Kong stocks to choose from, such as AIA Group, Ping An, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent Holdings, Geely, Bank of China, Commercial and Industrial Bank of China and China Construction Bank