China remains the primary market where global businesses plan to expand trade activities and increase manufacturing investments, as companies across the world actively adjust their trade strategies to deal with generally rising costs and sliding revenue amid the ongoing uncertainty caused by tariffs and trade policies, a survey by global financial institution HSBC showed on Tuesday.

About 44 percent of the global businesses surveyed plan to increase trade with China, 43 percent say they plan to trade more with Europe and 39 percent to trade more with the US, showed the survey, according to a press release sent to the Global Times.

Over the next two years, 40 percent of global businesses are considering or are in the process of increasing production in China, followed by Europe at 45 percent, the survey showed.

In addition, 54 percent of Asian businesses are looking to increase trade with China and 52 percent of Asian businesses are considering or in the process of increasing production in China, it said.

The survey was conducted from the end of April to the beginning of May involving more than 5,700 global companies in 13 markets, including 1,000 Chinese mainland enterprises, in a bid to understand their expectations and business plans amid chaos in the global trade order.

"China remains the linchpin of the global trade landscape. We firmly believe that the Chinese market will continue to serve as a growth 'engine' for domestic and international companies, thanks to its great potential in sci-tech innovation and traditional advantages such as market scale and industrial and supply chains," Wang Yunfeng, president and CEO of HSBC Bank (China) Co, was quoted as saying.

On the same day, multinational bank Standard Chartered disclosed that its Renminbi Globalisation Index, its proprietary measure of the international usage of the yuan, hit an eight-month high of 5,167 in May. The data underscores the resilience of the Chinese currency in global trade settlements, according to the report sent to the Global Times.

Goldman Sachs forecast on May 26 that the appreciation of the yuan's foreign exchange rate could benefit Chinese stocks via the accounting, fundamental, risk premium, and portfolio flow channels. "We estimate every 1 percent of renminbi increase versus the US dollar could boost Chinese equities by 3 percent, including translation gains, everything else being equal," the financial institution noted.

Nomura, meanwhile, increased China's GDP growth forecast in a report released on May 19. According to the report, the easing of trade tensions between China and the US is a material positive for China's economy, especially for the second quarter, as exporters might try to front-load their shipments before the 90-day tariff pause ends. In addition, retail sales in China produced a robust performance in the first quarter with the support of its expanded trade-in program.

China's economy withstood pressure and maintained stable growth in April, continuing on a path of positive development amid internal challenges and increasing external shocks, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on May 19.

"Recently, the rollout of a package of fresh policy measures in early May further stabilized expectations and markets. Stepped-up policies and stable economic growth will bring more opportunities to China's capital market in 2025," Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund, told the Global Times.

Yang said that the overall valuation of the A-share market is less than one-third of the US stock market, which means great investment opportunities. "With the emergence of sci-tech innovative fields represented by artificial intelligence and humanoid robots, China's capital market is expected to attract inflow of more overseas capital," he said.

(Source: Global Times)