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What do you know. China goes faster on the way down than on its way up.

On Tuesday, the Shanghai Composite sank, albeit briefly, below the 3,000 mark - meaning it had lost more than half its value since peaking last year. The ever-volatile index then recovered as investors piled into financial stocks, to close up 1 per cent on the day.

But the retreat below 3,000 was notable nonetheless. The benchmark spent all of three days north of 6,000 last October, peaking on the 16th of the month, which means it took about 150 trading days for China’s market to double last year after passing the three grand mark back in March. It has only taken about 135 to halve again.

The latest falls come despite new stock market rules announced at the weekend aimed at stemming the slump in share prices. The government placed restrictions on sales by controlling investors to try to avoid large numbers of shares hitting the market as lock-up periods expire.

Related links
New rules fail to spark China equities - FT.com