The Shanghai and Shenzhen markets in China are currently about 1.5% lower after reports over the weekend that the Chinese authorities have decided to abandon attempts to boost stock markets through large-scale purchases and will intensify efforts to find and punish those suspected of destabilising them.

The sharp falls in Chinese markets early last week, which triggered similar sell-offs globally, were reportedly caused by the failure of the authorities to buy shares and support the markets last weekend.

The authorities spent about $200bn on Thursday through various intervention measures, this was a key factor in lifting the value of Chinese stock markets by 5% on Friday.

Over the weekend, China’s securities regulator confirmed that 22 cases of insider trading, market manipulation and “spreading market rumours” had been handed to the police.

Among those detailed was Wang Xiaolu, a financial journalist, he is reported to have confessed to causing "panic and disorder" and inflicting "huge losses on the country."

In July he wrote a story which said that the state's securities regulator was studying plans for the government to pull its funds from the market - this was denied by state authorities.

Chinese officials have also said that last week's rout on global markets was caused by the Federal Reserve's indicating that it plans to go ahead with an interest rate hike, not by shifts on Chinese markets.

“China’s exchange rate reform had nothing to do with the global stock market volatility, it was mainly due to the upcoming US Federal Reserve monetary policy move,” said Yao Yudong, head of the Chinese central bank’s Research Institute of Finance and Banking.

Speaking to Reuters he continued, "We hope the Federal Reserve could further delay its interest rate rise, giving emerging markets ample time to prepare. The Fed should not only consider the US economy, but should also consider the global economy, which is very fragile."