BEIJING — China's central bank is set to meet the country's financial regulators and major banks on Monday, November 2, to discuss tools aimed at supporting the stock market, according to Chinese media reports, as authorities face mounting pressure to halt a steep slide in equities. The meeting reports are a new development following the earlier October slide that pushed the CSI 300 into a bear market.
The People's Bank of China will hold talks with the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and leading banks to study how to improve a relending programme for share buybacks and stake increases, financial news outlet Cailian reported on Sunday, citing people in the industry. The scheme lets companies and major shareholders draw on bank lending, backed by central bank funding, to buy their own shares. The 21st Century Business Herald reported that some securities firms and funds had been notified of a meeting with the PBOC and CSRC the same day to promote the use of capital-market support tools. There has been no official confirmation of the meeting's agenda or any planned measures.
A record slide that last month's measures did not stop
A new state-backed push would add to steps taken last month to steady the equity market — steps that have so far failed to turn sentiment, as a weak domestic economy and doubts over earnings from artificial intelligence weigh on investors, Bloomberg reported via InvestingLive. The CSI 300 index of major Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks fell 8.5% in October, entering a bear market; it was a record 12th straight week of declines and the worst month for Chinese stocks in more than a decade. The sell-off has coincided with new signs of economic strain: official purchasing managers' indexes released on Saturday showed manufacturing and non-manufacturing activity both slipped back into contraction in October, with the factory gauge falling to 49.3 and the non-manufacturing index to 49.7.
Reports of 200 billion yuan in new quotas — not yet confirmed
BigGo Finance reported that a major Chinese state-owned bank recently plans to add special stock buyback and shareholding-increase loan quotas of about 100 billion yuan each — approximately $15.0 billion each — for two central state-owned enterprises, China Reform Holdings Corporation and China Chengtong Holdings Group, a combined total of about 200 billion yuan (approximately $30.1 billion). BigGo noted that this part of the reporting cites channel information and has not been officially confirmed. The relending tool itself was created by the PBOC on October 18, 2024, together with the NFRA and CSRC, with an initial quota of 300 billion yuan at a 1.75% annual rate; in May 2025 its quota was merged with a swap facility for a total of 800 billion yuan at a 1.5% rate. As of the tool's second anniversary, cumulative applications numbered 1,113 with an upper limit of about 233.278 billion yuan (approximately $35.1 billion). Yaani: 200 billion yuan is roughly 30 billion dollars of potential state-backed buying power — larger than the entire amount actually applied for under the tool in its first two years — which is why traders are treating Monday's meeting as the test of whether Beijing will put real firepower behind the market.
The signals came in a weekend cluster, BigGo reported: at an expanded Party committee meeting on October 30, the CSRC proposed going all out to stabilise the market and expectations, while the PBOC's Party committee emphasised continuing a moderately loose monetary policy and keeping liquidity ample, and planned to conduct overnight reverse repo operation auctions every working day starting November 2 at an operation rate of 1.25%. Monday's session in mainland China and Hong Kong is the first chance for equities to react to the reports, InvestingLive noted; whether any support lasts is likely to depend on the scale and terms of any expanded relending facility, after last month's measures failed to halt the slide.
Watch Monday's meetings and any official PBOC, NFRA or CSRC statement that follows: a meaningful expansion of the relending programme would signal Beijing is prepared to put more firepower behind the market, while a meeting that produces only incremental tweaks risks repeating last month's experience. As of publication, the meeting agenda and the reported 200 billion yuan in quotas remain unconfirmed by officials.