CHINA announced a flurry of new moves to halt a stock market slip, but the measures resulted in another big dive in share prices.
The government told state companies and executives to buy shares, raised the amount of equities insurance companies can hold and promised more credit to finance trading.
Hundreds of companies have halted trading in their stock after emergency measures announced last weekend failed to stop a rout that has dragged down the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index by more than 30 per cent since early June.
The Shanghai index lost another 5.9 per cent today and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed down 5.8 per cent after diving as much as 8.5 per cent earlier in the day.
Greece’s debt crisis has unsettled Asian stock markets but the losses in China are driven entirely by internal factors.
The decline in Chinese stock prices threatens to fuel political tensions and set back Communist Party plans to use financial markets to make China’s state-dominated economy more productive. The party wants to encourage stock ownership but small investors whose holdings have plunged in value say they will no longer buy shares.
Little more than a month ago, China’s stock market was the best performing in the world. The boom began after state media said last year stocks were cheap, which led investors to believe Beijing would prevent prices from falling. The Shanghai index is still up 70 per cent from one year ago but novice investors who piled in just before the peak hold shares that are worth less than they paid.
Financial literacy is limited in a society where the mainland’s first communist-era stock exchange opened in Shanghai only in 1990. Brokerages offer classes in trading but a culture of commentators who preach the gospel of low-risk, long-term investing has yet to develop. Many small investors rely on rumours or tips from friends in a market rife with complaints of insider trading and fraud.
“The central government made considerable reputational investment in the rally over the last year, particularly via ample cheerleading from state media,” said IHS Global Insight economist Brian Jackson in a report. Official support “is likely to remain extraordinary”, he said, but it will be hard to revive flagging investor enthusiasm.
Today, the cabinet agency that oversees China’s biggest state-owned companies said it had told them to avoid selling shares and to buy more “in order to safeguard market stability”.
In a separate order, the securities regulator told directors, executives and senior managers of publicly traded companies who have sold shares in those companies within the past six months to buy them back and said they are barred from selling. It said they are required to buy more if the price falls by more than 30 per cent in the next 10 days.
The insurance regulator said the proportion of their assets Chinese insurers are allowed to invest in stocks will be increased to 40 per cent from 30 per cent. The amount of a single blue-chip company’s shares that an insurance company can buy will increase to 10 per cent from five per cent.
The central bank said it will provide “ample liquidity to support stock market stability” through a state-owned company that lends to brokerages to finance share purchases, a practice known as margin lending. The People’s Bank of China statement was read on state TV’s national midday news.
Chinese authorities have tried to reassure investors the decline is normal following the boom that saw the Shanghai index soar by more than 150 per cent beginning in late 2014. The flagship ruling party newspaper, People’s Daily, said on Monday the economy can maintain steady growth and provide “solid fundamentals” for “healthy development of capital markets”.
Jackson noted that a survey by the Southwestern University of Finance found 8.8 per cent of households participated in the stock market in the second quarter of this year, up from the 6.1 per cent proportion seen in the first quarter.
According to the newspaper China Business News, the latest percentage is the equivalent of 37 million households.
“That confirms that a substantial number of households rushed in just as valuations were peaking, but also that the total exposure of private households in China is relatively low compared to Western countries, where often a third or more participate in equity markets,” said Jackson.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here