China Rolls Back Restrictions on Pledged Shares to Give Businesses Another Break

* The country’s two major stock exchanges have loosened the rules on repurchasing pledged stocks, to ease pressure on shareholders and help curb the pledged-stock crisis that has helped depress the market

* Shareholders can now extend the repurchase period to more than three years, while previously they had been required to buy back the shares they had pledged as collateral for loans within three years