China’s markets regulator talks to banks to calm jitters

HONG KONG (Reuters) -China’s securities regulator on Wednesday night held a meeting with executives of top global investment banks with an aim to calm financial markets nerves, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The online meeting adds to official efforts to shore up investor confidence in Chinese markets, which has been dented by sweeping regulatory actions that involved firms in the $120 billion private tutoring sector and technology behemoths.

“This is more to calm the market to isolate the education industry and not to over interpret it,” said one of the people, who has knowledge of the meeting held by China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) vice chairman Fang Xinghai.

China stocks rebounded sharply on Thursday morning with the blue-chip CSI300 index up 1.2%, while the gained 1.0%.

Executives from investment banks Credit Suisse (SIX:), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:), JPMorgan (NYSE:) and UBS, among others, attended the meeting, said the people, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

The regulator only invited those foreign brokerages with existing licenses to operate in the country, said a separate person with knowledge of the meeting.

CSRC and Credit Suisse did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. Representatives at Goldman, JPMorgan, and UBS declined to comment. Bloomberg first reported the development on Wednesday.

The meeting followed a brutal sell-off in shares of Chinese companies this week after investors were spooked by Beijing’s rules published over the weekend that ban for-profit tutoring in core school subjects.

The new rules for the private education companies closely followed China’s antimonopoly campaign against technology giants and new regulations for home-grown companies looking to list overseas.

Beijing, however, has stepped up efforts to soothe investor nerves over the last couple of days amid concerns that a sharp sell-off in equities could have a spillover effect to other asset classes including bonds and foreign exchange.

China’s state media on Thursday said yuan-denominated assets remain attractive and that short-term market panic did not represent long-term value.

The state-backed China Daily said Beijing remained supportive of domestic companies seeking to list overseas and that regulators would soon unveil more measures to further open capital market to foreign entities.