The Shanghai exchange found nine cases last year regarding illegal trading. They involved 15 futures brokerages, 19 clients and funds totaling more than 300,000 yuan (US$38,989), it said in a statement posted on its website last Friday.

Five of the nine cases were settled under the exchange's regulations while the others were handed over to police as they are involved the theft of funds.

The exchange did not identify any of the brokerages or individuals involved in the wrongdoing.

Cases in which people, typically those with a new account, steal funds from other accounts via online trading platforms are on a rise, the exchange warned.

The Shanghai bourse said it often had trouble locating the culprits as they usually submitted fake information when opening accounts. The exchange urged futures houses to tighten supervision and auditing when setting up new accounts for customers.

"It was also found that some futures investors lacked risk-management awareness" to protect their accounts, the exchange said.

China is increasing scrutiny of its fledging but fast-growing futures industry. Turnover in the sector surged 56 percent to a record 21 trillion yuan last year.

The China Financial Futures Exchange was set up in Shanghai in September last year to prepare for the launch of index futures based on the Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index.

At present, only commodity contracts are traded on China's three commodity futures exchanges.

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