China's securities regulator pledges improved supervision standards, malpractice crackdown

BEIJING, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Thursday said that it will guide the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the China Financial Futures Exchange to strengthen their standards of supervision for abnormal transactions, and that it will crack down on illegal activities such as market manipulation and insider trading in accordance with laws and regulations.

In a statement on its website, the CSRC said that these efforts are for maintaining the market's normal trading order.

"Regulatory authorities do not interfere with normal market transactions, and we seek to protect investors' rights to fair and free transactions in accordance with the law. However, we will resolutely crack down on illegal activities that disrupt the market trading order, in accordance with laws and regulations," the statement said.

Recently, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges took regulatory measures to crack down on the abnormal trading behavior of an institution in accordance with regulations, the CSRC statement said.

"That's fulfilling their trading supervision responsibilities, not limiting share selling," said the CSRC statement.

On Feb. 19, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges issued separate statements that named Lingjun Investment, a major quant fund, as an entity that had disrupted orderly market trading. The exchanges also announced penalties for the company, including open censure and a restriction on trading for a stated period of three days.