The Financial Times reports China’s securities regulator is probing IMC BV, a Dutch high-frequency trader, over its activity in the futures market during China’s stock market rout last summer, the second western group to face regulatory fallout from the turmoil. High-frequency trading has gained popularity among Chinese brokerages and hedge funds in recent years, but remains small and the industry has faced a backlash following the equities collapse in late June 2015. Regulators placed new restrictions on stock index futures last September, including prohibitively high margin requirements for non-hedging trades, which decimated volumes. There are no futures on individual stocks in China’s vast domestic market. Regulators have blamed market manipulation and “malicious short selling” for contributing to the stock market turmoil last summer.
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