BEIJING — The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) announced the official initiation of expanding pilot projects to promote the trading of stock options and stock index options while giving the green light to the trading of two new options on Nov 8.

Trading of the Hushen 300 ETF options will be launched on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, while that of the Hushen 300 stock index options will be launched on China Financial Futures Exchange.

"The stock options and stock index options are basic risk management instruments for managing stock and spot investments," said Chang Depeng, a spokesperson with the CSRC.

Since the launch of the SSE 50 ETF options on the Shanghai Stock Exchange four years ago, the market has been operating in a steady and orderly manner, which partly contributed to the solid foundation of expanding pilot projects in terms of fostering market, nurturing talents and accumulating experience, Chang said.

Expanding the pilot projects is conducive to improving a multilevel capital market system and better the market functions, as well as to gravitate middle-to-long term capital toward the market and boost market stability, Chang added.