Punishments imposed on individuals and firms for collaboration with companies to give false financial reports

China's stock-market regulators have aimed a fresh blow at accounting firms and companies giving false data to investors in a stepped-up campaign to stamp out market fraud.

State media said the Ministry of Finance had punished 13 more accounting firms and 21 accountants for collaborating with firms to give false financial reports.

The toughest punishment was meted out to Suizhou Chengxin Accounting. The firm has been barred from auditing work for one financial year, according to a China Securities News report.

The ministry had uncovered 'serious irregularities' during routine reviews of last year's financial reports, the paper said.

The same newspaper also said the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the stock-market watchdog, would implement new supervisory procedures next month to ensure the reliability of corporate disclosure.

'The markets are definitely filled with irregularities, and the government is not happy about that,' said Li Shiming, an analyst at Galaxy Securities.

He said the increasing attention paid to regulating the domestic stock markets was also linked to China's imminent entry into the World Trade Organisation, which would open up the economy and demand higher levels of regulatory supervision.