Investors breathe a sigh of relief as mainland China, Hong Kong stocks swing to higher close
Top officer at Public Security Bureau warns of crackdown against 'malicious short selling' as stocks in HK and on the mainland bounce back
Hong Kong and mainland stocks ended another volatile session higher yesterday, but the gains risk overstating what analysts said were tentative bounces from some of the sharpest falls since the global financial crisis.
The relief rally came as Liu He, a top economic adviser to President Xi Jinping , told reporters on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia that neither the Chinese economy nor its stock market were in bad shape.
Trading volume in Hong Kong was almost evenly split between buyers and sellers of the city's 50 benchmark stocks, despite every sector in the index posting what appeared to be solid recoveries.
Half of all mainland stocks remained suspended, leaving investors with few options but to buy back what they had sold in a bid to balance their exposures.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 5.76 per cent, or 202.14 points, to 3,709.33, the biggest single-day rise in percentage terms since March 4, 2009, when the index added 6.12 per cent.
Nearly 1,300 of the 1,400 stocks available for trading on the mainland surged by their daily 10 per cent limit, led by brokers, coal miners and construction-related companies.
