(Yicai Global) Sept. 14 -- The Shanghai Stock Exchange and asset manager China Reform Holdings are linking arms to compile stock indexes of enterprises owned by China’s central government in different fields, such as energy, technology and shareholder returns, in order to optimize the structure of the state-owned economy.

China Securities Index, the Shanghai bourse’s equally-owned joint venture with the Shenzhen stock exchange, and China Reform will put together so-called ‘1+N’ indexes, where ‘1’ refers to all mainland-listed firms controlled by central enterprises under the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and ‘N’ refers to the themes.

The China Securities-China Reform central enterprise comprehensive index, will be the first and most important in the series, the Shanghai stock exchange said on its WeChat account yesterday, citing the agreement recently penned between the two parties.

Together, the Shanghai stock exchange and China Reform, which invests state funds in central enterprises, will focus on improving the quality of listed central enterprises, promoting the healthy development of the capital market and optimizing the structure of the state-owned economy, the agreement said.

The pair will hold activities enabling institutional investors and analysts to visit central government-owned enterprises, support listed central enterprises to hold earnings roadshows, hike advertising of public real estate investment trusts, promote environmental, social and governance information disclosure systems and provide central enterprises with specialized consulting and training services on the capital market.

Set up in 2010, China Reform had invested in 163 central enterprises listed on the mainland as of the end of last month, 75 percent of which were in strategic emerging industries.

Editor: Kim Taylor