China’s CSRC Seeks Opinions on Capital Market Stability as State Investors Step Up Support

China’s securities regulator has recently notified securities and fund institutions and listed company representatives to hold a symposium and gather suggestions on promoting the stable and healthy development of the capital market, according to Jiemian News. The article said the move came as China’s market-support measures intensified, with five central SOE-listed companies — China Shenhua, CRRC, Aluminum Corp. of China, Guodian Nari and China Coal Energy — announcing plans before trading on July 20 to boost holdings, buy back shares, pay cash dividends or inject quality assets. On the funding side, Shanghai-listed companies disclosed 39 buyback-and-stake-increase announcements since the evening of July 17, including nine new plans with a combined cap of 900 million yuan. Since July, 212 such announcements have been filed on the Shanghai market, including 58 new plans with a combined upper limit of 8.1 billion yuan. By June 30, Shenzhen-listed companies had disclosed 246 buyback and stake-increase plans in the first half, with buybacks capped at 71.896 billion yuan and stake increases capped at 13.121 billion yuan. China National Investment and China Reform Holdings said on July 19 that they had deployed more than 50 billion yuan of stock buyback and stake-increase relending and matching funds, and had cumulatively bought nearly 10 billion yuan of domestic equities, respectively. Among central SOE firms, Aluminum Corp. of China’s controlling shareholder and concert parties plan to buy A-share and H-share stock worth 1 billion yuan to 2 billion yuan within 12 months; CRRC’s controlling shareholder plans to buy 150 million yuan to 300 million yuan within six months; and China Coal Energy’s controlling shareholder plans to buy 50 million yuan to 100 million yuan. Guodian Nari’s chairman proposed a 500 million yuan to 1 billion yuan share repurchase using company funds, while China Shenhua said it will push forward the injection of quality assets from its controlling shareholder and continue interim dividends in 2026. Brokerages and private funds also joined in. Huaan Securities, Guolian Minsheng Securities and Sinolink Securities announced share repurchase plans totaling up to 700 million yuan. In private equity, Lingjun Investment said it and its core management will invest 200 million yuan within two weeks to subscribe to its products, while Pingfanghe Investment plans to use 100 million yuan of its own funds to subscribe to its securities funds. Jiemian News reported that six firms have made buybacks or self-purchases since July, totaling 412 million yuan. ETF inflows also accelerated. Last week, the market saw 229.033 billion yuan of net ETF inflows, of which stock ETFs contributed 203.592 billion yuan and broad-based ETFs 156.12 billion yuan. As of July 17, the Huatai-PineBridge CSI 300 ETF had a latest size of 99.521 billion yuan and weekly net inflows of 21.852 billion yuan. The article said the buying came as A-shares swung sharply on external shocks, but domestic fundamentals and first-half earnings remained solid, with Shenzhen-listed companies that have issued half-year profit alerts reporting combined net profit of about 230.7 billion yuan, up 147% year on year.