China's stock index futures will probably start trading at the Shanghai-based China Financial Futures Exchange at the end of this year, said China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) chairman Shang Fulin.

 

"We are actively pushing forward the preparations," he told an international financial forum in Beijing Thursday.

 

The China Financial Futures Exchange inaugurated in Shanghai on Sept. 8 is considering targeting its first stock index futures at the Hushen 300 Index.

 

Experts say the stock index futures will have two principal functions: price discovery and risk hedging.

 

China's capital market was facing a more open financial environment as the interim period after accession to the World Trade Organization drew to an end, Shang said.

 

"The risk prevention task is arduous," he said, adding the regulators would continue to improve systems concerning securities trade, information disclosures, mergers, acquisitions and market supervision.

 

"We will push forward the construction of capital market at all levels, expanding the bond and stock market, boosting over-the-counter trade and stably developing the financial derivatives market," he said.

 

The split share reform had brought fundamental changes to China's capital market, so the current supervisory systems should be adjusted according to new circumstances, he said.

 

The split share structure, referring to the existence of both publicly-owned tradable shares and a large volume of state-owned non-tradable shares, was regarded as a major factor leading to four years of bearish activity on the market.

 

To make all their shares tradable, listed companies undergoing reform have to offer additional shares or funds to private investors as compensation for potential losses in the value of their portfolios when new shares hit the market.

 

The reform has been viewed by the regulator and investors as vital for the capital market to function as an open and fair market for both majority and minority public shareholders.

 

For the 190 companies that have not started the split share reform, most of them have reform intentions, but a few faced real difficulties, Shang said, urging them to finish reform through mergers and restructuring.

 

China would continue to experiment with the establishment of joint-venture securities companies in the long run, and the current suspension of such trials was due to huge risks in some domestic securities agencies that tried to avoid their responsibilities through inviting foreign fund, according to Shang.

 

"We actively support qualified securities companies going public," he said.

 

The government supported the listing of its blue-chip companies on domestic markets, so as to let Chinese investors share the profits of the country's high-speed economic growth, he said.

 

Some blue chips, including the Bank of China, Air China and Daqin Railway, had successfully gone public on the domestic markets.

 

Many more, such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Life and China Mobile, were on the waiting list.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2006)