China tries to calm its stockmarkets

After Chinese tech stocks plunged, the government said it would introduce policies that would benefit the markets – sending stocks soaring.

Liu He, China's vice premier
Liu He: rolling out measures to benefit stocks
(Image credit: © Alex Edelman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Chinese stocks are on a roller coaster”, says Paul La Monica for CNN. The country’s tech shares had plunged in recent weeks, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon index of US-listed Chinese tech plays down 38% during the month through 14 March. Beijing’s crackdown on tech firms, “worries about leading Chinese companies possibly getting delisted in the United States” and a surge in domestic Covid-19 cases had all weighed on sentiment.

On 16 March, regulators came to the rescue. A top financial policy committee chaired by vice-premier Liu He announced that the government would “actively roll out policies that benefit the markets”. Investors took it as a “trend changer” and Chinese stocks had their best day since 2008, says Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote. The Golden Dragon index soared almost a third, while the Hang Seng Tech index leapt 22% in Hong Kong.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.