Investors piled into Shanghai shares in the first two hours of exchange-link trading, outstripping Hong Kong purchases by 10 times in a sign of global demand for mainland equities, Bloomberg News reported around midday on Monday.

International investors bought 10.6 billion yuan (S$2.24 billion) of Shanghai shares at the midday break, about 82 per cent of the daily quota, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Mainland investors used about 1 billion yuan of their 10.5 billion yuan limit in Hong Kong.

Bloomberg said trading through the link is running smoothly, according to brokerages including First Shanghai Financial Holding Ltd. and Emperor Securities Ltd.

"It looks like overseas investors favor the stocks without Hong Kong listings," Dai Ming, a money manager at Hengsheng Asset Management Co. in Shanghai, said by phone. "There isn't much enthusiasm toward the Hong Kong stocks, and the problem is that local investors aren't quite familiar with trading rules."

Most buy orders for Shanghai shares through the link are coming from individuals, said Eliot Li, director of corporate development, sales and marketing at First Shanghai, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

Corporate and institutional investors are observing the link's debut and may trade through the program in the next few weeks, Li added.