Financial futures launched

China launched its first financial futures exchange Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported, aiming to give the country's companies a variety of tools to hedge financial risks. Mock trading will start this week, but the exchange is unlikely to trade its first product, futures based on the Shanghai Shenzhen 300 Index, until the end of the year. The index tracks the 300 largest companies traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges and represents around 60% of the value of China's stock markets. The futures exchange will ultimately offer other products, including bond index and currency futures. China allows trading in commodities futures, but hasn't allowed trading in financial futures since a bond-futures market was shut down a decade ago to rein in speculation. The exchange is jointly owned by China's two stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and three commodities futures exchanges in Shanghai, Dalian and Zhengzhou.