(Yicai Global) March 30 -- GCL System Integration Technology's stock price seems to have halted its wild downward spiral for now after the Chinese firm said that it will guarantee that its employees will not lose money by buying into the solar panel maker. 

Employees should purchase GCL shares within a year as the firm will cover their potential losses, the Suzhou-based company said in a statement this morning. The firm will also build a new factory in eastern Anhui province to make large solar modules with an annual output worth no less than CNY40 billion (USD2.5 billion), it added.

GCL's shares [SHE: 002506] climbed 0.3 percent to CNY3.36 (US 48 cents) by the lunch break after hitting another nearly five-year low of CNY3.17 in the morning. Meanwhile, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Index was 2.81 percent down by noon. GCL's stock price has lost nearly 40 percent of its value in two weeks.

The equity price was looking down even if the company had been busy publishing new investment plans last week. On March 25, GCL said that its parent Golden Concord Holdings and a state-owned platform under Jiangsu province's Siyang country will be spending up to CNY1 billion (USD140.7 million) in a share buyback in the next 12 months.

The stock price plunge may have been caused by the spread of Covid-19 abroad, Chinese media reported earlier. GCL's overseas business, including the big markets of the US, France, and Spain, made up more than 60 percent of its total, according to its 2019 interim earnings report.

Production is gradually returning to normal but the outbreak will have a certain impact on GCL's first-quarter performance, the company said on March 25. 

Editor: Emmi Laine