About 861,500 new stock accounts were opened last month, reversing a five-month slide, according to the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation on Thursday.

That was up 15 percent or 160,000 new accounts from the figure in August, the lowest record for this year.

The surge was attributed to the increase in new accounts during the week from Sept. 22 to 26, when 366,378 new accounts, almost double the number of the previous week, were opened after the government announced the scrapping of stamp duty on stock purchases.

The news helped investor confidence rally, the China Securities Journal said.

Central Huijin, an arm of the country's sovereign wealth fund, had launched a move to increase its shareholdings in three major state-owned banks -- the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Bank of China and China Construction Bank -- in the secondary stock market from Sept 18.

The fund market also welcomed 40,327 new accounts in the last week of September, almost double the 20,300 in the week earlier. It was the first time in six months that the 40,000 mark was broken.

By the end of September, total stock accounts in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets were up to more than 121.2 million. And the number of fund accounts exceeded 28 million.

(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2008)