HONG KONG – Stocks in China plunged 7.7 percent on Monday, the largest one-day sell-off since the 2008 financial crisis. But China’s top securities regulator, Xiao Gang, showed no sign of concern as he addressed a financial forum here.
香港——中国股市周一暴跌了7.7%，为自2008年金融危机以来最大的单日抛盘。但中国证券最高监管人肖钢于香港一个金融论坛上发表讲话时，没有表现出担忧的迹象。
After all, the sell-off was largely engineered by Mr. Xiao’s agency. On Friday evening, the China Securities Regulatory Commission cracked down on borrowing to invest in shares by placing a temporary ban on margin financing against three of China’s biggest brokerages. Lending money to investors so they can trade shares has played a big role in the phenomenal rise in Chinese shares.
毕竟，此次抛盘在很大程度上由肖钢的机构策划。周五傍晚，中国证券监督管理委员会通过对三家中国最大的券商实施融资融券的临时禁令，严厉打击以投资股票为目的的借贷。向投资者贷款让他们能够进行股票交易的做法，对中国股市的惊人上扬起了极大的作用。

Containing risk is a key priority for Mr. Xiao, who as chairman of the regulatory commission, presides over what was the world’s best-performing stock market last year. Many economists and analysts said that the nearly 40 percent rise over the last three months was unsustainable, a bubble waiting to pop.
控制风险是肖钢的重中之重，他作为监管委员会的主席，主持着去年世界上表现最佳的股票市场。许多经济学家和分析师说，过去三个月的近40%的增长不可持续，那是一个待破的泡沫。
“The C.S.R.C. worries that some brokers have not been fully compliant in their margin finance operations, which may lead to substantial losses of their clients, and brokers themselves, in case of a market correction,” Leon Qi, an analyst at Daiwa Capital Markets, said on Monday. “Hence it ‘engineered’ a market correction.”
“证监会担心，一些证券商在他们融资融券类业务中的做法不完全符合规则，如遇市场调整，可能会给他们的客户及券商自己造成重大损失，”大和资本市场(Daiwa Capital Markets)分析师齐晓亮(Leon Qi)周一说。“因此证监会‘策划’了一次市场调整。”
Mr. Xiao did not specifically refer to Monday’s market sell-off. Instead, Mr. Xiao offered high praise for a new pilot program linking the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges, describing it as “a very important innovation” because while it cracks open the door to China’s still largely closed capital account, the program does so in a way that “the risk can be controlled.”
肖钢没有具体提及周一的市场抛盘，而是对一个连接上海与香港股票交易所的试点项目给予了高度评价，称其为资本行业提供了“新的发展空间”，因为该项目敲开了中国在很大程度上仍处于封闭的资本账户的大门，而且是以一种“风险可控”的方式实现的。
In the broader context of moves by policy makers to soften China’s economic slowdown, the securities regulator’s actions follow steps by the central bank, the People’s Bank of China, to cut interest rates and loosen lending restrictions on banks. Analysts said Beijing’s overall goal was to ensure that new liquidity created by the easing of monetary policy found its way into productive sectors of the economy, where it can help create jobs, and does not just get plowed into the stock market.
在政策制定者力图减缓中国经济增长放慢速度的大背景之下，证券监管机构的行动是继作为央行的中国人民银行降息和放松对银行贷款限制的步骤之后。分析人士称，北京的总体目标是，确保放松货币政策所产生的新资金流动性进入生产性的经济行业，帮助在这些行业创造就业机会，而不只是被再投资到股票市场。
This coordinated approach among financial regulators “should also help provide the People’s Bank of China with more flexibility on future monetary policy with less concern on the potential negative ‘side effects’ if further easing is needed,” Morgan Stanley analysts led by Richard Xu wrote on Monday in a research report.
以徐然(Richard Xu)为首的摩根士丹利分析师们在周一的一份研究报告中写道，金融监管机构的这种协调做法“也应有助于让中国人民银行在未来货币政策上有更多的灵活性，而不必过多地担心潜在的负面‘副作用’，如果需要进一步放松政策的话。”
The regulatory commission said on Friday that it had investigated 45 brokerages and announced a three-month ban against three of them from opening new margin financing accounts on behalf of clients. Those three were Citic Securities, Haitong Securities and Guotai Junan Securities — all large, state-owned companies that were discovered by the regulator to have violated rules by extending margin financing and securities lending to a large number of clients beyond the contracted term, usually six months.
证监会上周五表示，它已检查了45家证券公司，并对其中的三家宣布了一个为期三个月的禁令，让它们暂停为客户建立新的融资融券账户。这三家分别是中信证券、海通证券和国泰君安证券，都是大型国有企业，监管人员发现它们向大批客户提供超出一般六个月合同期限的融资融证贷款，违反了规则。
The suspension of new margin financing accounts is likely have a significant effect on the brokerages, which had been ramping up such activity in recent months. Several, including Citic and Haitong, had taken advantage of their own surging share prices to announce new offerings of stock, the proceeds of which would partly have been used to invest further in margin financing.
暂停新开融资融券账户的禁令对证券公司可能产生较大的影响，这些公司在最近几个月里极大地增加了此类帐户的数量。包括中信和海通在内的几家证券公司，利用自家公司股票价格的大幅上涨，已宣布要发行新股，如果发行，部分所得将会被用于融资融券业务的进一步投资上。
In an announcement late on Sunday responding to the regulatory commission’s ruling, Citic Securities said it would take a number of steps to reduce risk in its existing margin finance business, including raising the minimum amount of assets that a client must have to secure such financing, to 500,000 renminbi, or about $81,000, from 300,000 renminbi.
中信证券在周日晚宣布对监管委员会裁决的回应时表示，将采取一系列措施来降低其现有融资融券业务的风险，包括将客户获得此类融资所需的证券资产的最低值从30万元人民币提高到50万元(约合8.1万美元)。
“The company will seriously implement the corrective measures, fully review its existing business process and systems and rules, and conduct business in strict compliance with existing business rules,” Wang Dongming, the chairman of Citic Securities, said in the announcement. Shares in Citic Securities and Haitong Securities both fell by 16.5 percent in Hong Kong on Monday.
中信证券董事长王东明在宣布中说，“公司将认真落实整改措施，全面检讨其现有业务流程、系统及规则，严格遵守现有规则开展业务。”中信和海通的股价周一在香港股市都下跌了16.5％。
While the regulatory commission’s move to let some steam out of the share market rally is probably a good thing, there are many risks to such a strategy, and they are compounded by the record amount of leverage that investors have taken on in recent weeks.
证监会给股市反弹降温的行动虽然是件好事，但这种策略也有不少风险，投资者最近几周的创纪录杠杆投资进一步加剧了这些风险。
Outstanding margin financing had more than doubled in the last six months, recently exceeding 1 trillion renminbi. Frances Feng, an analyst at Credit Suisse, wrote Monday in a research not that margin financing has been accounting for around 18 percent of the average daily trading volume in China recently, more than double what it was a year ago.
尚未偿还的用证券担保的贷款额已在过去六个月里翻了一番还多，最近已超过1万亿元人民币。瑞士信贷的分析师弗朗西丝·冯(Frances Feng)在周一的一份研究简报中写道，中国股票市场最近日均交易量中，约有18%是利用这种借入资金的股票交易，比一年前的这类交易量翻了一番还多。
Before Monday’s market rout, the benchmark Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index had surged 38 percent in the last three months. But there were signs that the rally was increasingly precarious and losing momentum. Trading volume peaked on Dec. 9 when shares worth 77 billion renminbi, or about $12.5 billion, changed hands. The current five-day trading volume is less than a third of that level, at around 22 billion renminbi, signaling less active support for shares at their current levels.
在周一的市场抛盘发生之前，作为基准的上海证券交易所综合股票指数已在过去三个月里上涨了38％。但有迹象表明，这次股票反弹越来越摇摇欲坠，正在失去动力。交易量已在12月9日达到峰值，当天的股票成交额达到770亿元人民币，相当于125亿美元。目前的五天成交量低于峰值的三分之一，约在220亿元人民币上下，这是目前的股票价格没有多少强劲支持的信号。
At the same time, the pace of new investors piling into the market has slowed. The number of new trading accounts opened on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges declined to 550,000 in the week that ended Jan. 9, down from a peak of nearly 900,000 the week that ended Dec. 12.
与此同时，新投资者涌入市场的步伐已经放慢。上海和深圳证券交易所的新开交易账户数量，在截至1月9日的那周已降至55万，远低于截至12月12日那周的近90万的峰值。
The slowing momentum means the regulatory commission must act delicately as it seeks to prune the excesses of the rally. But the need to act is clear when weighed against the overall slowdown in China’s economy.
股市势头放缓意味着，监管机构在寻求控制反弹中的过激行为时，必须谨慎行动。但相对于中国经济增长总体放缓的考虑，需要采取行动是显而易见的。
Figures to be released on Tuesday are expected to show that China’s economy expanded last year at the slowest pace in more than 20 years.
周二将公布的数字预计会显示，中国经济去年增长的速度是20多年来最慢的。
“The stock market fever has made it difficult for the People’s Bank of China to further loosen monetary policy,” Daiwa’s Mr. Qi said. The securities regulator “is helping to cool the sentiment on stocks, with the aim that some of the incremental liquidity will go to the real economy.”
“股市发烧让中国人民银行进一步放松货币政策变难，”大和的齐晓亮说。证监会“是在帮助冷却对股票的热情，其目的是让一些增加的流动性进入实体经济。”