If the bosses of the London Stock Exchange were in possession of a book on business etiquette in Asia, they threw it out of the window on Friday afternoon. The exchange’s blistering rejection of a £32bn merger approach by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) ensured the maximum loss of face for chairwoman Laura Cha and her chief executive Charles Li.

… “I don’t think this is a coincidence,” said Niki Beattie, founder and chief executive of Market Structure Partners, an exchange advisory company. …