Futures exchange to monitor top accounts

    CHINA’S Financial Futures Exchange said Friday it will monitor the accounts of its top 50 clients and introduce transaction fees on the three index futures products to curb speculative trading.

    The exchange said trading in index futures had surged since mid-June when the market started its fall and it will combat “premeditated” shorting activities, it said, without elaborating. It added that trading using quantitative strategies, especially program trading, had exceeded 50 percent of total trading volume, exerting certain impact on the operation of the index futures market. It will monitor accounts of its top 50 clients by position or turnover to strength supervision over the market.

    Man arrested for suicide rumors amid market rout

    CHINESE authorities have arrested a man who allegedly spread rumors about people in Beijing jumping off buildings in response to a stock market crash, television reported yesterday.

    The 29-year-old man, surnamed Tian, was detained for “disorderly behavior,” China Central Television said. He allegedly wrote on social media July 3 that “there are people, because of the stock market crash, who have jumped off buildings in Beijing’s Financial Street,” a commercial development in downtown that houses many financial institutions.

    Fund houses seek to speedy application, sale of funds

    LEADERS of 25 major mutual fund houses in China on Saturday promised to subscribe to their companies’ equity funds, the latest effort to stem a stock market slide of nearly 30 percent since mid-June.

    The firms also would seek to speed up the application and issuance of equity funds, the Asset Management Association of China said in a statement. The announcement follows near-daily government policy moves over the past week, including an interest rate cut and a relaxation of margin lending rules.

    Ant Financial completes private placement of shares

    ANT Financial Services Group, the finance arm of China’s biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., said Friday it had completed a private placement of shares that domestic media had said was seeking to raise up to US$4 billion.

    It was the first major private placement for Ant Financial, which gave no financial details of the deal. The round was led by China’s State-owned National Social Security Fund, “with participation of major Chinese insurance corporations and other strategic investors,” Ant Financial said in a press release.