Central Huijin to buy more shares in Chinese banks

Central Huijin Investment, which is owned by China’s sovereign wealth fund, will continue to buy shares in three state-run banks in order to boost confidence in the stock market, Bloomberg reported. Huijin said it “recently” purchased 30.07 million shares in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), 5.13 million shares in Bank of China (BoC) and 16.1 million shares in China Construction Bank (CCB). Its holdings in the three lenders now stand at 35.42%, 67.53% and 57.09%, respectively. This first round of purchases was completed on September 28 and Huijin expects to make more over the next 12 months. ICBC and BoC are among the four biggest stocks in the Shanghai Composite Index, which fell 6.1% in the third quarter although it is still up 60% so far this year. The three banks’ A-shares have underperformed the SCI and their Hong Kong-traded shares this year.