BEIJING, Dec. 9 -- China's top securities regulator agreed that China Financial Futures Exchange could launch the options trading of the SSE 50 stock index from December 19, China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement Friday.

The stock index options are a risk management tool in the capital market and an important part of the multi-level capital market, said the statement. It added that the scale of China's stock market has been steadily expanding, and the demand for risk management from investors has increased accordingly.

The launch of the SSE 50 index options trading is conducive to comprehensively deepening capital market reform, meeting investors' hedging needs, improving the mechanism to stabilize the capital market, and promoting the stable and healthy development of the market, according to the statement.