After sudden rout, China stock traders question Beijing put

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Nov 24): What happened to Beijing put?

That’s what investors in China are asking themselves after a gauge of large-cap shares plunged 3% on Thursday, rattling a market that’s grown accustomed to state support when losses get extreme. While there were signs over the past week that the government was looking to cool gains in high-flying shares like Kweichow Moutai Co. -- along with concerns over rising corporate bond yields -- the severity of Thursday’s slump caught some traders off guard.

The biggest surprise was that losses accelerated into the close. The nation’s CSI 300 Index sank 52 points in the final 45 minutes of trading, the steepest afternoon decline since the depths of China’s stock market crash in January 2016. Such late-day selloffs have been rare this year, with the index rising an average 2.9 points, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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