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 liberalization, 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.