BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China's securities watchdog said on Tuesday it has approved letting five additional securities companies to carry out pilot margin trading, as current business is operating smoothly.
The Shenyin and Wanguo Securities, Orient Securities, China Merchants Securities, Huatai Securities and China Galaxy Securities are the newcomers, as well as being the second group of such companies after the government began the pilot program on March 19 when six companies received initial approval to trade, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a statement.
The CSRC also lowered the broker's net capital threshold to 3 billion yuan (448 million U.S. dollars) from 5 billion yuan, but investors still need at least 500,000 yuan to open a new account.
Another ten companies, which also met the requirement but were relatively smaller in terms of business scale, were on the waiting list, according to the statement.
Margin trading allows securities companies to lend stocks and money to investors.
An unnamed official with the CSRC said the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges were working on new plans to expand the pilot program.
By the end of March, margin trading value totaled 3.05 billion yuan, according to the CSRC.
