Shanghai, Feb 1, 2026, 04:38 GMT+8 — Market closed.
- Bank of China A-shares last closed at 5.37 yuan, flat on the day, as the Shanghai market fell.
- The lender lifted margin requirements for retail silver deferred contracts and flagged bigger precious-metals swings.
- Investors are watching for more curbs on bullion products ahead of Monday’s reopen.
Bank of China Limited’s onshore A-shares (601988) finished unchanged at 5.37 yuan on Friday, after trading between 5.35 and 5.43, even as the Shanghai Composite slid 0.96% to 4,117.95. The stock has eased about 5% since early January, based on closing prices.
The bank, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, said it raised the margin ratio for clients trading silver deferred contracts to 50.80% from 48.26%, effective after Friday’s settlement. It also pointed to wider price limits on the underlying contract, a move that typically aims to curb leverage when markets get jumpy.
In a separate notice on Friday, the lender urged customers in products such as gold accumulation and account precious metals to “reasonably control” positions and trade within their risk tolerance, citing larger price swings since the start of the year. Bank of China Mobile
That warning landed as gold and silver prices posted sharp one-day losses on Friday, prompting lenders to tighten rules around retail bullion products. Cheng Qiang, chief economist at Debon Securities, blamed “profit-taking after a rapid rise” for the violent moves. Feng Chengcheng at HSBC described gold as a “global risk-hedging tool” but said investors should brace for short-term turbulence, while Liang Zhonghua at Guotai Haitong Securities warned silver’s earlier catch-up rally could leave it vulnerable to a pullback. Sina Finance
Margin is the cash (or collateral) traders must post to hold leveraged positions. A higher margin requirement means more money up front, which can force speculators to cut exposure.
The “deferred” silver contracts referenced in the bank’s notice are a form of margin trading that allows investors to take positions with less than the full contract value. When volatility spikes, exchanges and brokers often raise margins to reduce default risk.
For Bank of China shareholders, the precious-metals tweaks are a small slice of the story next to lending spreads and credit costs. Still, they offer a read-through on how aggressively major banks are policing retail risk as volatility bleeds across asset classes.
But these moves can cut both ways. If metal prices keep swinging, tighter rules may curb fee-generating client activity and could bring more complaints if retail losses mount; if markets calm quickly, the changes may fade into the background with little earnings impact.
The bigger uncertainty for the stock remains familiar: the direction of interest rates and the health of corporate and property-linked borrowers. Lower rates can squeeze banks’ net interest margins, while weak demand for loans can slow growth even when funding costs fall.
When markets reopen on Monday, traders will be looking for whether the risk-control push spreads. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China said it will change handling hours for its “Ruyi Gold Accumulation” business and impose quota management on non-trading days from Feb. 7, while China Construction Bank said it will lift the minimum amount for regular contributions to its personal gold accumu
lation plan to 1,500 yuan from 9:10 a.m. Beijing time on Feb. 2.
