China's top securities regulator ironing out nitty-gritties

BEIJING, Jan. 15 -- China will soon clarify the rules and regulations on qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) trading stock index futures in China, the China Daily reported Friday.

"The regulator will work on the policies and regulations on securities companies, mutual funds and QFIIs ... in order to guarantee the smooth launch of index futures," the newspaper quoted Shang Fulin, chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) as saying at a national conference on securities and futures supervision that ended Thursday.

CSRC will also enhance supervision on securities firms that provide brokerage services for index futures trading and improve the country's cross-market supervision regime, the newspaper quoted Shang as saying.

Foreign institutions may be allowed to trade index futures using a portion of their QFII quota, but details on trading requirements are still unknown, said the newspaper.

At the conference Shang also said that the regulator would introduce margin trading and short selling pilot programs at the appropriate time, according to the newspaper.