CLOSE to 300 funds that oversee more than 1 trillion yuan (US$161.04 billion) in China are sitting on the sidelines with “ammunition” to enter the stock markets at any time, Shanghai Securities News reported Friday, citing its own calculations.

    The report is the latest attempt by domestic media to restore confidence in the country’s stock market after a 25 percent crash in late June and early July rattled both leaders in Beijing and global investors.

    Panic selling has slowly ebbed after the government rolled an unprecedented series of support measures in recent weeks to avoid a full-blown crash. But many investors are reluctant to get back into the market after weeks of wild price swings.

    Shanghai Secruities News said it compared data of 294 funds July 27, when stocks plunged more than 8 percent in their biggest one-day drop in more than eight years, and Aug. 4.

    The changes of the net value of these funds suggested that they had held little to no position in the market in that period and were likely sitting on cash.

    “After the recent sharp tumbles in the market, the share prices of a proportion of firms have fallen to the levels before the bull market, the time to enter the market has emerged,” the newspaper reported an unidentified fund manager as saying.

    In a separate article, the paper also said that foreign investors such as UBS, Deutsche Bank and BlackRock Inc. in interviews spoke highly of the regulator’s market rescue actions and were already bargain hunting or waiting to re-enter the market.

    A survey of China fund managers last week showed they had cut their equity allocations to the lowest in 6-1/2 years as prices slid.

    While some fund managers believe that stocks will be propped up by the bailout, others noted that the government will have to withdraw from the market at some point, which could trigger a fresh slide. (SD-Agencies)