The two capital-market tools date from China’s 2024 downturn: a swap facility that lets securities, fund and insurance companies exchange assets for more liquid ones to buy stocks, and a central bank relending program that funds loans for share buybacks and stake increases [4]. In early November the PBOC said it would widen the swap facility to more institutions and lower its fees; the securities regulator said 31 securities and fund firms had been approved and had applied for more than 100 billion yuan of quotas [4]. The central bank also cut the relending rate to 1% from 1.25%, made the program permanent, and said banks had applied for more than 200 billion yuan of quotas [3].
The support follows a sharp slide. The CSI 300 lost 8.5% in October, its worst monthly drop in more than a decade, and had fallen for a record 12 straight weeks by the end of that month [4]. Selling resumed on Nov. 3, when the Star 50 fell nearly 4% before the next day’s rebound [4].
On Wednesday, before the report was published, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.46% to 3,680 and the Shenzhen Composite gained 1.32%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.98% to 24,315 as tech and electric-vehicle shares slipped [5].