Beijing intervenes once again to prop up mainland stock market, yuan

Beijing has been cutting holdings of US Treasuries to support the yuan, and has restarted an equity purchasing program meant to shore up the mainland’s stock market after the biggest two-day selloff since 1996 this week and ahead of a high-profile military parade in Beijing on September 3 celebrating the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources. The alleged buy-up swung the Shanghai Composite Index up from a loss of 0.7% to a 5.3% gain in the final hours of trading on Thursday. China’s central bank also injected RMB150 billion (US$23.4 billion) into the financial system through open-market operations on Thursday, the second such move this week.