Beijing Stock Exchange starts trading today

The newly-established Beijing Stock Exchange (BSE) started trading on Monday morning, with the first batch of 81 companies debuting on the bourse.

The companies listed include 10 that were newly approved and 71 that were transferred from the selected tier of China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations, also known as the "new third board."

As of 10:20am, shares of all the 10 newly-listed companies had triggered temporary suspension twice as their prices jumped over 60 percent. These shares continued rallying after trading resumed, with the highest surging by over 500 percent at some point.

The stock exchange doesn't limit the price change of the newly-listed companies on the first trading day, but trading will be suspended for 10 minutes when stock prices fluctuate by over 30 percent and over 60 percent.

The launch of BSE came only two months after China announced the plan for setting up a new stock exchange, a move widely welcomed by the market as it aims to address the long-standing financing conundrum of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Yi Huiman, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, has hailed the launch of BSE as "another landmark in China's capital market reform and development."

"It is also of vital importance in creating a multi-level captial market, improving financial support for SMEs, as well as promoting innovation-driven development, and economic transformation and upgrading," he said at the launching ceremony.