HONG KONG (Reuters, AFP) - A long awaited plan to connect the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges will go live on Nov. 17, the Hong Kong bourse said in a statement on Monday.

The scheme, a key plank in China's capital market liberalisation, was initially expected to start at the end of October but it was delayed for unspecified reasons.

Under the stock connect project, global investors will, for the first time, be able to trade Chinese stocks from Hong Kong, while mainland investors will be able to access Hong Kong stock market.

"The SFC and the CSRC jointly announced today that the launch of Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect on 17 November 2014 (the 'launch date') has been approved," said a statement issued by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) early Monday.

The SFC is Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), and the CSRC is the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

The joint scheme is expected to see volumes on both exchanges rise significantly, particularly Shanghai, but it is subject to strict limits in order to preserve capital controls in China, where Communist authorities keep a tight grip on the yuan currency.

The bourse connection - which is expected to allow the equivalent of US$3.8 billion (S$4.9 billion) a day in cross-border transactions - had originally been slated for last month, but was unexpectedly delayed as pro-democracy protesters continued to shut down sections of Hong Kong.