China’s securities regulator started a campaign to crack down on stock market manipulation and insider trading, the latest effort to reduce risks as an equities boom lures a record number of novice investors.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) plans to target trading by brokerage employees using non-public information and market manipulation, including of futures prices, the CSRC said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. The regulator also cited insider trading in over-the-counter markets and accounting fraud in mergers and acquisitions.
The CSRC has rolled out measures this year that signal an effort to temper gains for the world’s best-performing market and prevent another boom-and-bust cycle. This month, authorities banned a source of financing for margin trades, while CSRC chairman Xiao Gang (肖鋼) said new investors should be cautious and evaluate stock market risks. In January, the regulator announced a round of checks into margin lending by brokerages.
The latest crackdown comes after the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index plunged by as much as 2.2 percent yesterday amid speculation the government would increase the stamp duty on stocks.
Stocks also fell after the securities regulator increased the pace of initial public offerings (IPO), spurring concern new equity sales would divert funds from existing shares.
The Shanghai Composite Index slid 0.5 percent to 4,393.69 at the close yesterday, after climbing to the highest level since 2008 on Thursday.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained