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Shanghai reopening
BusinessBanking & Finance

Shanghai reopening: stock exchange to release staff from sleeping on-site on June 6, breaking its ‘closed loop’ as city exits lockdown

  • All technicians, compliance officers and back-office clerks will be able to commute from home every day
  • Some employees were allowed to leave the closed loop on Wednesday

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A security guard at a residential compound still under lockdown in the Jing’an district of Shanghai’s Puxi area on June 2, 2022. Photo: AFP
Daniel RenandZhang Shidong
The Shanghai Stock Exchange plans to allow all technicians, compliance officers and back-office clerks to leave a so-called closed loop, letting them commute from home every day from June 6, after mainland China’s financial hub lifted a citywide lockdown on Wednesday.
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Some employees were allowed to leave the closed loop, where workers essentially sleep on-site or in dormitories nearby to avoid contact with outsiders, on Wednesday, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter who declined to be named, as they are not authorised to talk to the media.
Exchange staff have been locked in the building since late March to ensure trading goes on at China’s largest bourse. They were divided into two shifts to rotate work before this weekend.

“Credit should be given to the exchange staff for their hard work and sacrifice,” said Ding Haifeng, a consultant at Shanghai-based financial advisory firm Integrity. “They kept equity trading running smoothly, even as the harsh lockdown of Shanghai disrupted every aspect of life and business.”

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Shanghai reopens after two-month Covid lockdown, but how fast can life return to normal?

Shanghai reopens after two-month Covid lockdown, but how fast can life return to normal?

Shanghai started a phased lockdown on March 28 by shutting down Pudong, east of the Huangpu River, before locking the whole city down on April 1. The city, which reported a total of 626,600 Covid-19 cases since its current outbreak began on March 1, finally lifted the lockdown on June 1, allowing more than 22.5 million residents – or 90 per cent of its population of 25 million – to leave their compounds.

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A large number of exchange employees had been staying at their offices a week before Pudong was sealed off amid a resurgence of coronavirus cases in Shanghai. The exchange’s decision to allow staff to leave the closed loop was in line with the city government’s commitment to restoring life and businesses in a quick manner by late June, and was aimed at improving staff members’ health and well-being.
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