Nearly 100 stock brokerages in Hong Kong and Shanghai took part in the market rehearsals over the weekend. Brokers are preparing for the link-up between Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges in an unprecedented initiative that would provide investors access to both markets. CCTV America’s Cathy Yang reports.

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing announced on Sunday that the two-day market rehearsals had gone smoothly. This goes on top of the connectivity test the weekend before. Participants for both weekends accounted for about 80 percent of total market turnover.

Even though all the technical kinks have been smoothed over in closed-door trials, which happened inside the Exchange two months before going online, it is still unclear which big players will join the initiative. Many of them are institutional investors who already invest on the mainland through the quota programs now in place. Investors also remain concerned over on tax issues, ownership rights and pre-check settlement.

The next market rehearsal is scheduled to take place on Sept. 13th, according to the HK Exchanges and Clearing. That’s roughly one month before the link-up is slated to go live between Shanghai and Hong Kong.

CCTV’S Owen Fairclough spoke to Clement Leung, Hong Kong Commissioner for Economic and Trade Affairs to the U.S.