China stock market tops US$10 trillion for first time since 2015

Bullish market: An investor looks at stock prices at a brokerage in Fuyang. China’s total market capitalisation is now US$10.04 trillion and just shy of the all-time high. — AFP

BEIJING: Chinese domestic equities are worth more than US$10 trillion for the first time since 2015, when a record crash erased half the market’s value in months and saddled millions of investors with losses.

The world’s second-largest stock market has added US$3.3 trillion since a low in March, helped by Beijing’s policies to encourage trading, a flurry of new listings that arrived with eased rules and the strengthening yuan.

Stocks have been close to the US$10 trillion milestone since July, when China’s government acted to tame a speculative rally that had suddenly pushed a gauge of large caps near a 12-year high.