China’s stocks fell, capping the benchmark index’s biggest two-month tumble since 2008, amid concern that government intervention to prop up the market will fail.
The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.8 percent to 3,205.99 at the close, paring a loss of as much as 3.8 percent. The SSE 50 Index, representing the biggest stocks in Shanghai, rallied as much as 6.7 percent from the intraday low.
Citic Securities Co (中信證券) slid 5 percent after Xinhua news agency reported that company executives were detained on suspicion of insider trading and the securities regulator was said to order the brokerage industry to boost its contribution to the nation’s market rescue. Bearish bets in the options market climbed as traders weighed the level of state support before a World War II victory parade this week.
The Shanghai Composite closed near its highest level of the day for the third straight session amid speculation state-backed funds are using afternoon share purchases to bolster the market. Stocks rallied almost 10 percent over Thursday and Friday on speculation authorities are propping up markets before President Xi Jinping (習近平) takes the stage at the parade, which the government is using to demonstrate its rising military and political might. Swings in Chinese markets this month have rattled investors worldwide as they struggle to anticipate policy actions in the world’s second-largest economy.
“There is a lot of confusion about purchases of stocks by state-linked funds,” Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co sales trader Gerry Alfonso said.
“Disclosures are very limited so it is impossible to know what they are doing with certainty,” he said.
The CSI 300 Index rebounded in the last five minutes of trading, adding 0.7 percent after slumping as much as 4.1 percent earlier. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 0.1 percent. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.3 percent.
The Shanghai Composite plunged 12 percent this month, adding to July’s 14 percent tumble. The stocks gauge, where low-priced banks have some of the biggest weightings, trades at 16 times reported earnings.
The government revived its intervention in equities on Thursday to halt the biggest sell-off since 1996. The effort to support markets was part of a broader push to ensure nothing detracts from the parade. China’s financial markets will be closed on Thursday and Friday to commemorate the event. Hong Kong’s bourse will be closed on Thursday.
“It looks like the government is buying shares today,” Zhaoyi Asset Management general manager of securities investment Li Jingyuan said.
“They still want to stabilize the market at this level,” Li said.
The Shanghai gauge will stabilize in a range between 2,700 and 3,000, Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management senior fund manager David Gaud wrote in an e-mail. Forced intervention amid the market sell-off in July now looks counter-productive, he wrote.
China’s securities regulator asked brokerages to step up their support for share prices by contributing 100 billion yuan (US$15.7 billion) to the nation’s market rescue fund and increasing stock buy-backs, according to people familiar with the matter.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) gave the order at a meeting with representatives of 50 brokerages on Saturday, which CSRC Chairman Xiao Gang (肖鋼) also attended, said the people who asked not to be identified because the meeting has not been made public.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last