(By Caixin journalists Wang Juanjuan, Yue Yue, Quan Yue and Denise Jia)
Chinese investors began 2023 full of optimism that an economic rebound fuelled by resilient export growth, relaxed real estate policies and other regulatory prescriptions would lead to a turnaround for the nation’s bear market in stocks. Instead, China ended the year with the world’s worst-performing equity market and its blue-chip CSI 300 Index down for the third straight year, losing 35% over 36 months.
The bear market for equities — triggered by the pandemic — now reminds investors of the 2015 stock market crash when A-shares lost a third of their value in one month and a series of government interventions did little to quell investor fears.
Since August, the authorities have launched a series of support measures, such as lowering the stamp duty on stock trades, tightening regulations on initial public offerings (IPOs) to limit the number of IPOs…
