State Council grants pension funds access to China's stock market

China’s State Council published the finalized rules allowing pension funds managed by local governments to invest in the country’s stock market on Sunday after shares slumped nearly 12% last week, the worst weekly performance since June, Reuters reported. Pension funds will be able to invest up to 30% of their net assets in China’s stocks, equity funds and balanced funds, according to rules published on the State Council’s website. Previously, the pension funds could only invest in bank deposits and treasuries. Together the funds have assets of more than RMB2 trillion yuan (US$322 billion) that can be invested, meaning about RMB600 billion (US$97 billion) could theoretically go into the stock market, state media has estimated.