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Until now, Asia’s largest economy has had three major stock exchanges,<\/strong> one in Shanghai<\/strong>, the country’s economic capital, another in the metropolis of Shenzhen<\/strong> and the last in the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In China<\/strong>, SMEs<\/strong> find it difficult<\/strong> to obtain bank loans, especially in the current economic downturn.<\/strong> The new Beijing Stock Exchange<\/strong> therefore aims to provide an additional means<\/strong> for these SMEs to raise funds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The launch of the Beijing stock exchange<\/strong> comes at a time when regulators are cracking down<\/strong> on large technology companies, accused of “disorderly expansion<\/em><\/strong>” in recent years. For Yi Huiman<\/strong>, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission<\/strong>, it is also a milestone<\/strong> in China’s capital market reforms<\/strong>. “It is important because it will strengthen<\/strong> the capital market at many levels, improve<\/strong> the financing system for SMEs, stimulate innovation and modernise the Chinese economy<\/strong><\/em>,” he said at a ceremony on Monday.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A total of 81 shares<\/strong> have started trading to mark the official launch of the exchange. Of these, 19 are up and more than 50 are down. “This is a pretty good performance for the first day<\/em>,” said Yang Hongxu<\/strong>n, an analyst at investment consultancy Shenguang<\/strong>. “With President Xi approving the exchange, I think you have little chance of this market failin<\/em>g.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n More than four million investors have opened accounts to trade on the new Beijing Stock Exchange<\/strong>, which adopts a registration-based listing mechanism, a system also adopted by ChiNext<\/strong> in Shenzhen and Shanghai’s<\/strong> technology-focused STAR market<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n