THE Shanghai Securities Exchange (SSE) and traders worked late into the night yesterday trying to agree on the price of treasury bond futures.
Dealing in the bonds was suspended earlier this month and traders have until tomorrow to agree on a price and settle their positions.
Tempers were frayed as those holding long and short positions were unhappy with the prices offered for winding down their holdings as the SSE tried desperately to play mediator.
Late last night there was still no news on the number of contracts settled as meetings between the SSE and the major players continued in a bid to resolve the dispute.
But analysts said the estimated 700,000 contracts would have to be liquidated if the SSE did not want to incur the wrath of the watchdog China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
On May 17, the CSRC ordered an indefinite national ban on bond futures trading and required traders to unwind their entire positions by tomorrow.
'The settlement hasn't gone as smoothly as expected because investors and traders were still haggling over the prices, especially for Contract 319,' said the general manager of a futures company.
