Some 25 US-listed mainland firms have had privatisation offers so far this year, with 22 of them announced before the end of June as the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets were imploding. 

Flick through the presentation slides Tidjane Thiam and his team ran through with investors when the newly installed Credit Suisse chief executive unveiled second-quarter earnings and it quickly becomes apparent why his first trip two weeks later is to Asia - it is his golden goose and he makes no bones about it.

Beijing cut interest rates and eased bank lending limits yesterday in a bid to stop panic selling in mainland stock markets that smashed them to eight-month lows, even as equities elsewhere in the world began to recover from the previous day's rout which investors termed "China's Black Monday".

China's bid to play a bigger role in the management of the global financial system has been in train since it helped draw up the rules that created the International Monetary Fund in 1944.

Clement Kwok King Man has had a busy 12 months. In that time, the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels chief executive has opened a new Peninsula hotel in Paris, signed a €300 million (HK$2.55 billion) deal to develop one in Istanbul and submitted a planning application for a landmark site in London.

The fall in Chinese stock prices has pushed Hong Kong-listed mainland firms back into the Credit Suisse "Cheapest Four" trading basket. Being overweight, the components of the Cheapest Four basket have outperformed the MSCI Asia Ex-Japan Index by 1.9 per cent in the year to date. 

The drop in the mainland equity market strikes a sombre tone, particularly in terms of the potential downside risks it poses to the economic growth in emerging markets. 

Structural shifts in international trade flows and industrial activity have likely turned China into the single biggest threat to global economic stability.

Asia's economic challenges might just be getting tougher if an extended export malaise is any guide. "Without a revival in shipments, it is difficult to foresee a pickup in growth more broadly," HSBC's economists write in a new note to clients highlighting a big shift in export patterns. 

Welcome to SCMP.com's live coverage of China's stock market chaos here's how todays trading unfolded. China's market rebounded to finish higher while Hong Kong finished strongly as the weeks-long rout in equities seems to slow down for now. As before, we'll be bringing you updates as they happen on price levels, the biggest fallers and gainers and other key trading data, as well as breaking news and expert opinion on key developments.

Mainland stocks in free fall despite a series of government policy interventions has many investors figuring it to be a sign of an impending financing catastrophe for the corporate sector. Not according to data crunched by analysts at HSBC. 

Restoring battered investor confidence is the cornerstone of Beijing's sweeping response to a US$2.8 trillion domestic stock market rout that could yet set off a systemic crisis and derail reforms to transform the country's economic model.

The best guide to mainland share performance over the past decade has been Beijing's monetary policy settings. Tight policy caps upside, while loose policy lifts prices. 

Investors pondering why Beijing's weekend interest rate cuts did not trigger a sustained rally for mainland shares yesterday can of course point to the rise in risk aversion sparked by the deepening Greek crisis.