Security market players
China has one of the largest bond markets in the world. As China continued to remove barriers to its bond market, foreign investor participation saw some significant growth of over the past years. Financial bonds, government bonds, and corporate debenture bonds were the most popular products in China’s bond market.Over 130 securities companies operate in China. Of those, the biggest 10 securities companies in China had generated the largest share of the securities industry total revenue. Since the beginning of Mainland China’s IPO sponsor system in 2014, a company was required to be sponsored by a securities company to be able to list publicly in Mainland China.
Stock market turmoil and recovery
After reaching its peak in 2015, the transaction volume at the two stock exchanges (SSE and SZSE) in Mainland China began to shrink. In the months before the crash, a large volume of investors joined the market to profit from rising stock prices. The resulting bubble began bursting on June 12, 2015, and reached its trough on August 24, 2015, which was known as “Black Monday”. In the immediate aftermath of the crash, policymakers in Beijing scrambled to stabilize the market and limit the impact on other sectors of the economy.Since then, the securities market in China had undergone a slow recovery process. After the rush to capital markets in 2014, Chinese companies became more cautious about going public in China or abroad. This was also due to the government introducing stricter regulations and more rigorous oversight. Besides increasing control, making the domestic securities market more attractive for Chinese companies and being able to compete with overseas markets was also an objective for the Chinese government. Therefore, the bourse in Shanghai opened the Star Market 50 as direct competition to the NASDAQ.