Securities watchdog vows market revamp
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-12-14 17:16

China's top markets regulator promised over the weekend to encourage more institutions to invest in the country’s 14-year-old bourses, as managed funds have nearly doubled to US$40 billion nationwide so far this year.

Shang Fulin, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, told an investor forum in Shenzhen he would try to woo more blue-chip companies to list on the country’s US$500 billion bourses.

Several major companies, including Shanghai-based Bank of Communications, China’s fifth-largest bank, and Hong Kong-listed PetroChina , the country’s top oil group, were now speeding toward domestic or overseas share floats.

“We will encourage large-capitalized firms to float shares on the mainland to change the status quo: a stock market dominated by small- and medium-sized companies,” Shang said.

China’s markets have been dominated by retail investors, increasing market volatility. Shang said mutual funds managed 324.4 billion yuan (US$39.2 billion) at the end of October — 13 percent of the bourses’ free float — well ahead of industry experts’ expectations. China only allowed the first funds in 1998.

Stocks have shed about a quarter of their value since April, pressured by the goverment’s cooling steps.

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