The Chinese government has doubled its efforts to rebuild investor confidence in the country's stock markets. It has done this by purchasing shares in four commercial banks according to statements filed with the stock exchange last Monday.

The Central Huijin Investment Co had parlayed 363 million yuan or US$59.2 million into bank shares last June 13 according to Reuters calculations based on documents filed with the country's stock exchange authorities.

The company holds the lion share of investments made by the Beijing government into state-owned financial firms. The company has been purchasing shares in the secondary market during the extended skid for the past six months. Recent data had indicated that the second largest economy of the world was cooling faster that what was previously projected.

The latest intervention of a unit of the country's sovereign wealth fund said to be worth over US$500 billion had purchased shares in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China.