As early as 1997, when Soros launched the first round of attacks, the Hong Kong government knew very well that with Hong Kong's existing foreign exchange reserves, it was simply unable to deal with possible financial attacks alone.
As a result, senior financial officials from Hong Kong secretly went to Beijing, and they were promised by the central authorities to spare no effort to give full support to China's foreign exchange reserves. This is also the source of confidence for the Hong Kong government to defend the exchange rate of the Hong Kong dollar in the first round of attack on the Hong Kong dollar.
Soon after, at the annual meeting of the World Bank, Zhu Rongji and Soros were invited to attend the meeting. Zhu Rongji said to Soros on the spot: "China will adhere to the position of not devaluing the renminbi and assume the historical responsibility of stabilizing the Asian financial environment!"
Soros certainly knows the strength of the central government behind Hong Kong. At this time, Zhu Rongji has successfully led China's economic transformation, and the ammunition depot of the central government is sufficient to cope with this providential retribution.
However, regardless of whether the central government will be strong or forbearing, Soros will bet on the latter. There is a simple reason. Hong Kong has always been known as a free port. There is no precedent for large-scale government intervention in the capital market, and it will seriously affect the credibility of Hong Kong's free market.
Moreover, international speculators headed by Soros still have hundreds of billions of dollars at their disposal, which is enough to bring down most economies in the world.
Time entered August of 1998. After ravaging half the world, Soros led international speculators back to Hong Kong. At this point, Soros publicly shouted in The Wall Street Journal: "The Hong Kong government will fail"!
Premier Zhu Rongji also said: "The Central Committee will maintain the prosperity of Hong Kong at all costs!"
There is no turning arrow before opening the bow. Everyone knows that there is no room for both sides to stop. By this time, two vice presidents of the People's Bank of China and the Bank of China had arrived in Hong Kong with HK$ 60 billion, ready for war. The day of decisive battle is not far away.
On August 14, the Hong Kong Government made a sudden move to use the Exchange Fund and the Land Fund to enter the stock market and the Hang Seng Index futures market at the same time, causing the Hang Seng Index to rebound by more than 560 points, or 8%, to close at 7224 points.
Soros legion instantly surprised. They didn't expect the Hong Kong government, which has been flaunting the free market, to actually enter the arena to fight. However, Soros is an old Jianghu after all, and there is no turning back when he starts, so he will hold his ground. Now that your Hong Kong government is in the water, only small fish and big fish will be taken away.
Then until the 24th, the Hong Kong government and Soros's speculators kept coming and going, in collusion with each other. However, the Hang Seng Index gradually suppressed the previous crazy downward trend and began to be in a state of shock.
August 26th, two days before the settlement date of HSI futures.
August 27th, the day before the settlement date. In the morning 10, Hong Kong stocks opened. At first, speculators sold like an avalanche. The turnover in the first 15 minutes reached1900 million Hong Kong dollars; The second 15 minutes, clinch a deal 10 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Before the market closed 15 minutes, the war situation entered a white-hot state, with a turnover of HK$ 8.2 billion! The tragic state made all traders in the market dumbfounded.
On this day, the Hong Kong government spent HK$ 20 billion to entrust 65,438+00 brokerage companies to recover and intercept 33 Hang Seng Index stocks.
The Hang Seng Index closed at 7922 points, up 88 points from the previous trading day, the highest point since 19971October 4 165438+.
On the evening of the 27th, the final decisive battle is coming. Almost no one slept in Hong Kong that night.
August 28th, the settlement date of HSI futures. This is Soros's last chance to short the Hang Seng Index. Whether a large number of previously purchased bearish futures can be earned depends on this wave.
It should be noted that the settlement price of Hang Seng Index futures is the average quotation of Hang Seng Index every five minutes on that day. Therefore, in order to raise the settlement price, we must ensure the stability of the Hang Seng Index. To achieve this goal, the Hong Kong Government must do its utmost to strive for every inch of land.
On this day, millions of Hong Kong people locked their channels and stared at the fast-beating Hang Seng Index, all sweating.
At this moment, many Hong Kong citizens no longer care about whether their property has shrunk, and they really share the same fate with Hong Kong.
In the early morning 10, the decisive battle started. The Hong Kong government and the short-selling group immediately launched a fierce battle over "HSBC Holdings" and "Hong Kong Telecom". The speculators' selling is aggressive and unstoppable, and the government forces will block it, and all of them will be bought. Only 5 minutes after the opening, the turnover was as high as HK$ 3 billion!
The fighting intensified again before noon 12 closed. A number of blue-chip stocks such as Changjiang Industry and China Telecom were sold wildly by speculators, and the Hong Kong Government turned the tide. In the afternoon, it closed at HK$ 40.9 billion. When the market opened in the afternoon, the situation became more serious. Speculators' selling rolled in, and the Hong Kong government used almost all the available foreign exchange reserves, wolfed it down and stuck to it, with an average of 350 million yuan of shares changing hands every minute.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, the Hang Seng Index finally stopped at 7829!
After four thrilling hours, the trading volume of the whole day reached the highest record in the history of the Hong Kong stock market-HK$ 79 billion! Hang Seng Index futures finally closed at 785 1. In a total of *** 10 trading days, the Hong Kong SAR Government used the foreign exchange reserves equivalent to120 billion Hong Kong dollars, which boosted the Hang Seng Index by 1 169 points.
Donald Tsang, the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, immediately announced that the Hong Kong government had won the battle against international speculators and defended the Hong Kong stock market and the Hong Kong dollar.
Extended data:
1The Hong Kong financial defense war in August 1998 shook the world, and some people called it karma. The success of Hong Kong's financial defense not only turned itself from passive to active, but also greatly improved its ability to resist the Asian financial turmoil.
Moreover, Hong Kong dared to say no to international predators and demanded financial justice, which set a valuable experience and example for developing countries and regions to stand on their own feet, guard against financial risks and ensure financial security, and won praise at home and abroad.
The evaluation of Hong Kong's financial defense mainly revolves around two levels. One is the evaluation of Hong Kong's linked exchange rate system itself; The second is the evaluation of the government's massive entry into the market. The government has always pursued a liberal policy of "positive non-intervention".