In tandem with the moves, many of China’s leading brokerage houses have been plagued by a string of probes and investigations – in many instances, leading executives have simply fallen off the map and have disappeared without contact since September.
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Haitong Securities suspended trading in its shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai Friday.
China shares fell over 1 per cent on Friday morning, heading for their biggest one-day drop in a month, hit by fresh regulatory crackdown on leverage activities and weak industrial profit data.
(600030.SH), said it would cooperate with the country’s stock regulator in an investigation (http://www.wsj.com/articles/citic-securities-probed-by-chinas-stock-market-regulator-1448537277) of the firm for suspected violation of securities rules.
The SAC, a quasi-regulatory body supervised by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said it was investigating the matter, but has not accused CITIC Securities of any wrongdoing.
China’s biggest brokerage, yesterday said it received a notice from regulators stating it is under investigation.
Jitters in Chinese markets resurfaced on Friday as flagship indices CSI300 and Shanghai Composite logged their biggest percentage loss since August 25. Hong Kong’s stock market is tipped to start slightly weaker in what is expected to be another calm open on Wednesday, after Wall Street finished on a relatively flat note overnight.
Adding to the mix of bearish factors yesterday was news that profits earned by Chinese industrial companies fell 4.6 per cent last month from October a year earlier, declining for the fifth consecutive month amid a slowing economy and persistent overcapacity. Citic Securities and Guosen Securities plunged by the daily limit in Shanghai after saying they were under investigation for alleged rule violations.
Retail stocks were mostly lower, including Dow member Wal-Mart, off 0.6 percent.
Chinese stock market crash that unsettled nerves across globe is back haunting traders and investors as market plunge highest since June-August crash.
Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average lost 0.30%, led lower by airline stocks, with a number of companies in the sector suffering downgrades from brokers. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.2% and South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.1%.
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ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude was down 90 cents to $42.14 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
