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Money

China sets launch value for index futures contracts

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-04-16 09:31

SHANGHAI - The China Financial Futures Exchange on Thursday set the base value for the kick-off of trade in China's first stock index futures contracts, due for official launch on Friday, at 3,399 points for all four contracts.

The index futures will be based on the CSI300 index of the most actively traded and highly capitalised shares on the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets, which closed at 3,394.573 points on Thursday.

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The contracts are for May, June, September and December.

As futures contracts for later delivery typically have higher prices than contracts for earlier months, the exchange's unified benchmark leaves substantial room for the distant September and December contracts to jump during Friday's launch, traders said.

But there remains a small possibility of backwardation, traders said, as regulators, jittery over risks in China's first major financial derivative, have set many restrictions and consequent sluggish trading could potentially distort prices.