INTERNATIONAL

China to Expand Securities Experiment: China will expand its stock market experiment this year by encouraging every province to list top companies and stringing together its first national network of securities brokers, official media said. “The central government has listed the securities market as one of the most important vehicles to drive an overhaul of the country’s economy,” the official China Daily said. The new policy represents a major expansion of Beijing’s trial run with Western-style securities markets, throwing open the door to participation by both companies and individual investors in China’s vast inland regions. Stock fever has been one of the most obvious results of the market-style economic reforms the Communist Party has put into effect to try to save its political rule.