Chinese stock-index futures plunged by the daily limit before snapping back in less than a minute, the second sudden swing to rattle traders this month.
Contracts on the CSI 300 Index dropped as much as 10 percent at 10:42 a.m. local time, recovering almost all of their losses in the same minute. More than 1,500 June contracts changed hands in that period, the most all day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The China Financial Futures Exchange is investigating the tumble, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly.
The unexplained slump follows a similar drop in Hang Seng China Enterprises Index futures on May 16 in Hong Kong, a move that heightened anxiety among investors facing slower Chinese economic growth and a weakening yuan. Volume in China’s stock-index futures market, which was the world’s most active as recently as July, has all but dried up after authorities clamped down on speculative trading during the nation’s $5 trillion equity crash last summer. Tuesday’s volatility had little impact on the underlying CSI 300, which rose 3.4 percent.
“Liquidity in the market is really thin at the moment,” Fang Shisheng, Shanghai-based vice general manager at Orient Securities Futures Co., said by phone. “So the market will very likely see big swings if a big order comes in.”