China’s Stock Market Is in Free Fall:

After a rocky couple of years for the Chinese economy, the country’s stock market appears to be in free fall now, with authorities asking institutional investors not to sell stocks in an attempt to stabilize share prices as foreigners are pulling out.

On Monday, Chinese equities dipped after the country’s central bank decided to keep its medium-term policy rate unchanged at 2.5 percent, failing to cut interest as was widely expected by investors. The country’s CSI 300 was at its lowest level since 2019, a record only previously beaten in October 2023.

Today, the index was up by 0.006 percent compared to Monday, while it was down by 25.64 percent compared to a year before. The global markets, on the other hand, have surged in the past year, with the S&P 500 skyrocketing 24 percent in 2023, hitting an all-time high.

While the CSI 300 consistently sank through the past year, the MSCI World index—which covers large- and mid-cap representation across 23 Developed Markets (DM) countries—started steadily rising from the beginning of the second quarter of 2023.

The FTSE China 50 index—a real-time tradable index comprising 50 of the country’s largest and most liquid stocks—has plunged by 1.77 percent between Monday and Tuesday as part of a long-term large decline over the past six months. Compared to one year ago, the index is down by 29.24 percent.

China’s market regulators have tried to stabilize the market by imposing restrictions that stop some investors from being net sellers of equities on certain days. This strategy—with authorities offering what’s known as “window guidance” in an attempt to help the country’s stock market bounce back—was first introduced in October.

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