The California Public Employees Retirement System, the $225bn (€171bn) Californian pension fund, is to buy Chinese stocks for the first time despite its permissible markets policy, which forbids investment in emerging markets that fail to meet criteria on transparency, labour practices and market efficiency.

The fund said it would allow its emerging markets fund managers, AllianceBernstein, Dimensional Fund Advisors and Genesis Investment Management to invest in selected stocks, on a case-by-case basis, from January.