Experts: Speculation made slump worse

Short-sellers apparently saw opportunity to make money from declining stock values

High valuation of stocks and the use of high leverage in stock trading caused the Chinese A-share market to slump, but short-selling by speculators made the situation worse, experts said.

"Poisonous assets - the stocks with extremely high valuation - and high leveraging are the main reasons for the Chinese A-share market crisis," said Gu Jie, a vice-president of Guotai Junan Securities.