The Hong Kong bourse launched its second round of mini metals futures contracts on Monday as it seeks to build up interest from Chinese retail buyers on the back of its metals franchise. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has launched one-tonne contracts in nickel and tin, and a five tonne mini-lead contract. The launches come a full year after the bourse listed its first commodity contracts - in copper aluminium and zinc. After an initial flurry when the contracts launched, interest has tailed off to less than in early 2015.
The new contracts will trade in yuan, but otherwise are smaller, monthly futures modelled on those traded on the London Metal Exchange, which is owned by HKEx. The exchange has waived exchange fees on the contracts until the end of June 2016 to help the contracts build liquidity.