Less than 48 hours after his appointment, China's new chief securities regulator, Liu Shiyu, already has investors’ hopes for a stock market rally resting on his shoulders. A popular pun circulating online plays on the phonetic similarity between his name and the Chinese phrase "Bull Market Rain".

Mr Liu took the reins at the China Securities Regulatory Commission on Saturday after Xiao Gang was abruptly dismissed following a rollercoaster year of stock market turmoil and botched efforts to rescue it. The main stock index hit a seven-year high on June 19 but lost nearly half of its value by late January, erasing almost Rmb30tn ($4.6tn) from the two exchanges.

But Mr Liu, a former central banker, is likely to focus on structural changes aimed at developing the stock market as a more viable fundraising tool for companies, rather than a get-rich-quick scheme for retail punters, analysts say.