(Yicai Global) April 29 -- China will halve the mainland’s stock transfer fees from today to lower the cost of trading, spur market vitality, and boost support for the real economy. It is the first time in seven years that the fees have been cut.

The transfer charges for the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges will fall to 0.001 percent, the China Securities Depository and Clearing announced in a circular yesterday. Those for the Beijing bourse will drop to 0.001 percent from 0.0025 percent.

China’s stock transfer fees have only been lowered three times previously, in August 2015, September 2012, and May 2012, and each time after big fluctuations in mainland stock markets.

“A 50 percent reduction is a considerable cut,” Dong Dengxin, director of the financial securities research institute at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, told Yicai Global. But the move is largely symbolic, as the sums involved are not great, he added.

Investors will save about CNY20 million (USD3 million) a day, based on an assumed daily transaction volume of CNY1 trillion (USD150.9 billion).

This is the second time the stock clearing agency has acted to ease pressure on the capital market since a March 16 special meeting of the cabinet’s financial stability and development committee was held to lower market costs and spur market vitality.

The following day, the CSDC announced it would reduce the minimum provision payment ratio for stock settlement to 16 percent from 18 percent, cutting settlement reserves by about CNY20 billion (USD3 billion) for trading institutions.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Futura Costaglione