China stocks rose on Monday after the state margin lender said if would resume some short term lending businesses and cut borrowing costs for brokerages. Financial shares led indices higher with the CSI300 financial sub-index gaining 3.2 percent. The China Securities Finance Corp Ltd (CSF), which lends brokerages money to fund margin financing, said late on Friday that lending businesses under five terms - ranging from seven to 182 days - would all be open to brokerages starting Monday.
The firm's lending businesses under four terms, including seven, 14, 28 and 91 days, had been suspended for the past 18 months. The firm will also cut borrowing costs, it said. CSF gave no official reason for suspending shorter-term lending business in August 2014, but analysts believed it was due to a capital shortfall.
"It's a clear signal that regulators are ready to provide the market with easier, and cheaper funding," said Wang Yu, analyst at Pacific Securities. "Although it won't likely translate immediately into any meaningful businesses for brokerages, it definitely boosts investor confidence, in the context of a series of new messages from the new securities chief." The CSI300 index rose 2.2 percent, to 3,241.83 points at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.8 percent, to 3,008.04 points.
China CSI300 stock index futures for April rose 2.6 percent, to 3,213.2, 28.63 points below the current value of the underlying index. A value above 100 indicates Shanghai shares are pricing at a premium to shares in the same company trading in Hong Kong, and vice versa. The northbound quota for the Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect, currently set at 13 billion yuan, saw net inflows of 0.73 billion yuan. Total volume of A shares traded in Shanghai was 21.32 billion shares, while Shenzhen volume was 20.62 billion shares. Total trading volume of companies included in the HSI index was 0.8 billion shares.
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