Chinese authorities do not have a concrete plan or timetable for reforming the system of B-shares earmarked for foreign investors, state media reported on Tuesday, denying a rumour that swept the market on Monday.

The Shanghai Securities News and the China Securities Journal, the country's two main financial newspapers, quoted unnamed sources in the China Securities Regulatory Commission and elsewhere as saying authorities intended eventually to conduct the reform, but had no specific plan at present.

On Monday, a CSRC official told Reuters that the commission had no plans to make any announcement on B-shares.

Shanghai's B-share index jumped 9.65 percent on Monday, its biggest rise in more than four years, on talk that authorities were preparing to combine B-shares with A-shares, which are traded by domestic investors.

According to the rumours, the reform might be announced around China's week-long holiday at the start of October, when some major policy announcements have been made in the past.

The Shanghai Securities News said that while authorities had formed a body to discuss reform of the B-share system, it had not conducted a working meeting or prepared a draft proposal.

Some sources said authorities would not act on B-shares until they had completed reform of China's system of state holdings of non-tradable shares. That reform is scheduled to be largely completed by the end of this year.

Editor; Yan