Margin trading ambit widened

BEIJING - China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Tuesday gave the green light to five securities companies to participate in the pilot program of margin trading and short selling as part of the efforts to expand the business to more qualified brokerages.

Shenyin & Wanguo Securities, Orient Securities, China Merchant Securities, Huatai Securities and China Galaxy Securities are the companies that have got the securities regulator's nod. All of them satisfy the regulatory requirement of having at least 5 billion yuan in net assets and have completed the test runs of the trading network to undertake the business, according to the regulator.

In an effort to allow more second- and third-tier brokerages to participate in the new business, the regulator also lowered the minimum threshold for them to 3 billion yuan in net assets in the past six months and a B-class rating.