“…China’s securities regulator has said it will do whatever is necessary to ensure the country’s stock market stability and healthy development after recent jitters…”

Source: AFP

China’s securities regulator has said it will do whatever is necessary to ensure the country’s stock market stability and healthy development after recent jitters.

China Securities Regulatory Commission chairman Shang Fulin said officials will clamp down on anyone who spreads rumours that disrupt and destabilise the markets, according to a statement on the commission’s website.

He made the comments after government attempts to tighten the money supply triggered two roller-coaster weeks on Chinese stock markets that left the key index hovering near a 16-month low.

“The market volatility increased and investors’ confidence was battered by a complicated combination of internal and external factors,” Shang said in the statement dated Sunday.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has shed more than half its value since peaking in October — and more than a fifth this month alone.

“Ups and downs are inevitable in any market … the basics for a healthy and sustainable stock market shall not be affected,” he said.

The commission will balance share supply and demand and adjust the pace of financing to increase stability, Shang said, without elaborating.

The commission will increase transparency by publishing details of initial public offerings’ lock-up periods — the set time during which company employees and associates are not allowed to sell their shares, he said.

Markets continued to slide Monday despite Shang’s remarks as dealers said investors were looking for concrete action, not talk.