BUSINESS owners and major shareholders in China are selling down their stakes in listed companies, producing a glut of shares in a market already under pressure from a slowing economy and the impact of the Sino-U.S. trade dispute.

The new supply comes as the three-year mandatory lock-in after an initial listing expires for scores of companies that had initial public offerings (IPO) in 2016 and 2017, freeing promoters to reduce their holdings.

Analysts estimate that these major shareholders would collectively sell a net of about 240 billion yuan (US$34.10 billion) worth of shares in 2019.

That’s just short of the 270 billion yuan foreign investors have spent so far this year purchasing shares via the Stock Connect program, the main channel for foreign investors participating in China’s 55 trillion yuan equity market. The increase in selldowns is due to the huge number of IPOs three years ago, right after a four-month ban on new stock market listings China imposed in order to stem a chaotic slide during the market crash in 2015.

An average of 300 billion yuan worth of A shares came onto the market each month since April as lock-up periods expired, up substantially from 170 billion yuan monthly average seen between August 2018 and March 2019, according to a report by research firm Caixin Insight CEBM.

The lifting of the three-year lock-up period is expected to bring the A-share market under increasing pressure as more stock hits the market.

The retreat by key shareholders comes as China further opens its financial markets and international index providers lift weightings of China’s onshore equity market, prompting foreign investors to boost their China investments.

Those divestments by investors and founding sponsors that have intimate knowledge of the listed businesses have already started to put a dent on stock prices of market bellwethers.

Shares in Shenzhen Goodix Technology plummeted 5 percent last week as its second-largest shareholder announced a share cut.

Stake sales also appeared to have thwarted a robust rally in WuXi AppTec, a leading Chinese medical tech platform with heavy foreign holdings. (SD-Agencies)