End may be in sight for government stock purchases

State-led efforts to prop up mainland China’s stock market my finally be over as the government plans to refrain from further large-scale equities purchases and will instead focus on investigating and punishing those it deems to have created unfavorable market conditions, The Financial Times reported, citing an account of a meeting on Thursday of unnamed senior financial regulatory officials. On Tuesday, following a 22% fall in China’s stock market over four trading days, police detained 11 people suspected of “illegal market activities”. After standing on the sidelines for more than a week, the government resumed large-scale stock-buying in the last hour of trading on Thursday, then again on Friday, ending both up by around 5%.