Chinese firms that resumed trading at a loss to explain why
Some 300 mainland firms that resumed trading scramble to come up with plausible explanations
From second thoughts on "new projects" to admitting to poor judgment, mainland companies that returned to the trading floor used a wide array of excuses to justify their suspension when the going got tough last week.
Hundreds of mainland stocks suspended trading last week as investors fled Chinese stocks in a bout of panic selling that wiped out over US$3 trillion from the market. As of Friday, about 1,340 stocks stood suspended in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
As markets bounce back following a battery of confidence-boosting measures by the government, some 300 firms resumed trading on Monday but were at pains to explain the sudden departure, and return.
"Plans for important projects" was probably the most common excuse used by the companies that had halted trade. There wasn't much evidence of these "plans" when these companies returned.
Going by the trading resumption announcements, some had pulled back their "important plans", some had ended their negotiations with business partners, while others said they overestimated the importance of what they previously saw as "important projects" but later realised they were unworthy of a trading suspension.
Shanghai-listed Shantou Dongfeng Printing was among the ones that cited "plans for important projects" when it halted trading. On Sunday it said the "plan", a proposed strategic partnership with a local economic pilot zone, was "immature" and had been scrapped after "analysis and research" by the management in the last few days.