Trading of glass futures to be introduced soon

China will introduce trading of glass futures at the country's second largest commodity exchange in its latest move to diversify the country's futures products, an official with the country's securities regulator said Wednesday.

The State Council has approved the launch of glass futures trading at Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange soon, Zhang Yujun, assistant chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said at a conference in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.

Zhang did not specify the schedule for the launch of the glass futures trading at the conference, but said the preparations for trading of coking coal, vegetable seeds, potato and egg futures are on right track.

"Innovation in futures products will further revitalize the market," Zhang said.

According to Zhang, silver futures trading has gone well since being introduced in May at the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the country's largest commodities market, and China is now committed to building crude oil futures and a treasury bond futures market.

"The upcoming launch of glass futures trading and the plan for introducing more commodities futures shows the support for developing the country's fledgling futures market from the government and regulators," Gao Hui, vice president of Hangzhou-based Zhongda Futures, a brokerage firm, told the Global Times Wednesday.

"Diversifying the futures products can increase investors' choices in hedging against risks while investing in the futures market," Gao said.

Commodities exchanges across the country have reduced transaction commission fees by 44 percent since the beginning of the year and cut the market supervision fee by 50 percent, said Zhang at the CSRC.

"In the next stage, the CSRC will speed up trials for the overseas futures business and introduce overseas investors into the domestic futures market," Zhang said.

"To open the domestic futures market to overseas investors could speed up the internationalization of the country's futures market and allow China to gain pricing power in major futures commodities such as crude oil and steel," said Gao from Zhongda Futures.

The turnover of China's futures market reached 134.74 trillion yuan ($21.39 trillion) during the first 10 months of the year, up 18.84 percent from a year earlier, data from China Futures Association showed Saturday.