Further limits on securities refinancing urged

As investor confidence in China's A-share market has yet to substantially improve, finance experts stressed the need to further limit securities refinancing activity or potentially even halt it to ensure market fairness and stability.

In essence, the securities refinancing market enables listed companies' major shareholders to lend shares they own to investors for short-selling. Such shareholders lend their stocks to a securities finance company, and the company lends the shares to a brokerage, which, in turn, lends them to investors for short-selling purposes.

China has prohibited the lending of restricted shares — stocks that cannot be sold during a lock-in period — in a new regulation on Friday, aimed at fending off large shareholders' illegal shareholding reduction moves. Yet, major shareholders' lending of circulating shares remains permissible.