Five institutions involved in trading stock index futures yesterday signed a series of agreements in Shanghai to supervise the market, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Tuesday.

The agreements signal the establishment of a trans-market supervision and cooperation system, covering both stock and futures markets.

The five institutions are the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, China Financial Futures Exchange, China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation Limited, and China Futures Margin Monitoring Center Co Ltd.

Four mechanisms - the information exchange, risk pre-warning, risk control, and joint investigation - have been established.

Tu Guangshao, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), and Jiang Yang, assistant chairman of the commission, attended the signing ceremony.

Tu attached more importance to the implementation of the supervision system and urged the five institutions to work together.

The CSRC approved the trading rules for stock index futures in June, a crucial step toward the launch of the mainland's first index futures market.

The approved trading rules cover trading practices, clearing procedures, members' rights and obligations, risk control, information management, hedging operations and the investigation of and penalties for irregular trading.

(China Daily August 14, 2007)