You wait for ages and then several arrive at once. But the waiting can be tedious. So it is with the easing of regulations to allow an opening of China’s stock markets. Bourses have been anticipating a stock exchange tie-up between Hong Kong and the mainland for six months. (For those who recall the one-way “through train” from China to Hong Kong, it has been closer to seven years).

The latest effort – Stock Connect – will allow foreign investors to access Shanghai-listed stocks through Hong Kong brokers, subject to a quota. Mainland investors can, similarly, buy Hong Kong-listed stocks. Both flows will operate in a closed loop – people who buy using RMB can only receive RMB when they sell the shares, for example – to prevent leakage of capital from the mainland.

Revealed in April, the scheme was expected to take six months to prepare, giving a start date of roughly now. But over the weekend, the Hong Kong stock exchange confirmed there was still no clarity on the start, despite the readiness of participants. Yesterday morning, shares in Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Hong Kong’s listed bourse, dropped as much as 5 per cent.