CHINA’S securities regulator said Friday that margin lending risks at securities firms was controllable, while the amount of forced liquidation was tiny and had limited market impact.

    The comments from Deng Ge, a spokesman of the China Securities Regulatory Commision (CSRC), was apparently aimed at easing investor panic, after stocks tumbled below lows hit during last summer’s market crash.

    Deng told a regular news conference in Beijing that as of Jan. 14, only 2.02 billion yuan (US$306.8 million) worth of investor borrowings face margin calls, just 0.2 percent of the roughly 1 trillion yuan margin lending business.

    The spokesman was responding to a question on domestic media reports that 500 billion yuan in equity market positions faced potential margin calls, which he said was incorrect.

    So far this year, average daily forced liquidation in the margin lending business was about 60 million yuan, down 40 percent from last year, and having limited market impact, he said. (SD-Agencies)