Shares for the energy giant were down 3.45 percent at HKD6.16 before trading was halted shortly after the break. The mainland-China-tracking Hang Seng China Enterprises also bounced back 3.4%.
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While it is unclear what will happen when Chinese markets resume full trading, most fund managers and analysts expect there to be further losses as sell orders move through the market. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.2 percent to 5,477.70.
Only two stocks lost in Shanghai and Shenzhen at the closing. For Thailand, China is now the biggest export market and the largest source of foreign tourists whose number is projected to top 7 million this year, up from last year’s 4.6 million.
“The market shows signs of stabilizing because the regulator came to rescue small-caps, especially those on the ChiNext, which eased the liquidity crisis and gave investors a much-need dose of confidence”, said Tang Yonggang, an analyst at Shenyin Wanguo Securities.
Stocks in Hong Kong, which suffered their worst trading session since the global financial crisis on Wednesday, closed up 3.7 per cent, the biggest one-day gain for the index in three months.
Some additional negative sentiment was generated by news that the New York Stock Exchange temporarily suspended trading in all symbols due to an internal technical issue.
There are also fears that such a huge loss of wealth caused by the fall in share prices could lead to a political backlash in the world’s second largest economy, or precipitate a recession.
However, Chirathep said the impact on capital market mobilisation should be minimal because China’s aggregate financing from stock markets is small, representing only 2 per cent of the total.
Among the latest intervention measures, the central People’s Bank of China said on Thursday that it was providing liquidity to the state-backed China Securities Finance Co (CSF) to help stabilise the market, reaffirming an earlier pledge.
What is China’s government doing about it?
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said on its website late on Wednesday that holders of more than five per cent of a company’s stock would be barred from selling for the next six months.
Transactions print on Wednesday at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd in Hong Kong, China.
Police and security regulators launched a joint probe Thursday into “vicious short-selling” on the country’s stock markets, the official Xinhua news agency reported, only giving limited details.
The market plunge comes at a time when China had become an increasingly popular option for both retail and professional investors in the United States.
The USA administration has expressed concerns the stock market crash could delay Beijing’s economic reforms.
But others said it was too early to tell whether the stock market rout is over, noting that about half of all China-listed firms have stopped trading.
In the past few months, more Chinese citizens have piled in to the market as it appeared to be on a permanent upward trajectory.
The positivity from Chinese markets was reflected across the region, with the Nikkei in Japan and the Kospi in South Korea advancing 0.6% and 0.58% respectively.
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“Instead of focusing on Athens, investors should be much more anxious about what’s going on in China”, warned CNN Money. It has offered 260 billion yuan ($42 billion) of stock-secured credit for 21 brokerage firms to conduct self-run share purchasing on the market.
