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Social security funds invest 10b yuan in Nov stock market

By Bi Xiaoning (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-12-18 15:19

China's social security funds have invested nearly 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) in the stock market in November, signaling its confidence in the market.

Related readings:  Tax exemptions for social security funds  Social security fund pursues value-oriented investment  Social security fund to invest in CDB  Social fund spent on real estate

According to Wind Info, the leading integrated service provider of financial data and software in China, social security funds hold about 10.12 billion shares of 145 listed companies in the third quarter, while it holds 9.1 billion shares of 37 companies in the second quarter.

Statistics also show that social security funds began to focus on the investment of blue-chips, including petro-chemistry, finance, real estate and steel industry, while it favored risk-resisting industries in the third quarter, such as consumption and public transportation.

Industry analysts say that the social security funds have the task of stabilizing the market. It can be a signal that the stock market has moved out of the bottom if the funds have been invested on a large scale to buy shares for more than two consecutive quarters.

On Nov 28, Dai Xianglong, chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund, said the fund will gradually enlarge its index investment and buy a number of shares, so as to stabilize the market and gain stable income from the long-term development of the capital market.

On Dec 9, State Administration of Taxation released a notice which said the social security funds' interest from deposits and revenues from the securities market can be exempted from enterprise income tax. Previously, these income gains got temporary tax exemptions.

According to statistics, the social security fund's revenue from deposit interest and the securities market was about 113 billion yuan in 2007. The funds have been exempted from a close to 28.2-billion-yuan tax expenditure from the favorable policy.