New normal: China to wage sustained war against suspicious traders
Regulatory commission official says tough surveillance over securities market will be 'new norm' as authorities try to restore confidence
Beijing says it will crack down hard on suspicious trading, vowing tough enforcement would become a "new norm" as it tries to rein the excesses that have shaken the A-share market.
People's Daily, the Communist Party's mouthpiece, reported on Monday that suspicious market manipulators chasing profits had exploited new technologies, investment products and business models during the roller-coaster ride.
"The China Securities Regulatory Commission [CSRC] will keep up a high-handed crackdown on various kinds of illegal behaviour and tightened regulation will become a new norm," an unidentified official from the agency was quoted as saying.
The statement was seen as an attempt to place responsibility for the rout on unethical traders, rather than the regulator and its unsuccessful policies aimed at restoring stability. The CSRC also said it would strengthen supervision of the grey financing market, which channelled an estimated 2 trillion yuan (HK$2.43 trillion) in unregulated funds to investors who bought on margin.
"It's not wrong to take strong action against those bad boys," said Zhou Ling, a hedge fund manager at Shanghai Shiva Investment. "But it's unfair to blame them for the market turbulence."