Stocks up as regulator moves to aid market

SHANGHAI stocks closed up yesterday with market sentiment buoyed by an announcement by China’s securities regulator that it would guide more mediumand long-term capital into the market.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.02 percent to close at 2,568.05 points.

Shares of brokerages, insurance companies and automakers were among the biggest gainers.

The brokerage sector jumped 5.99 percent; insurance companies rose 3.42 percent.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission said yesterday it would enhance the quality of listed companies, strengthen governance of listed firms, regulate information disclosure and improve transparency, encourage share buybacks and mergers and acquisitions by listed firms, according to a statement published on its official website.

The commission also said that it will enhance market liquidity, reduce unnecessary interference in trading and provide investors with a fair chance to trade.

“With the deepening of supply-side structural reform as well as high-efficiency and high quality of economy development, capital markets will achieve healthy development,” Wang Zhaoxing, vice chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, told reporters at a news conference yesterday.

“We have sufficient reasons to be confident of China’s capital market.”

Gao Ting, head of China Strategy at UBS Securities, also said in a note that in the third quarter of this year, sectors with the largest weighting increases were insurance, banks, property developers and securities.