Reforms of China's equity market will still go ahead, despite signs of a bearish trend developing.

Mainland stocks suffered heavy losses on Monday amid a global sell-off, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index diving by 8.49 percent to close at 3,209.91 points, the steepest one-day slide in nearly eight and a half years. Monday's sharp retreat, following a fall of over 11 percent last week, has wiped out all of the gains this year.

More than 2,000 stocks, or about 80 percent of the total number of listed firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen, plummeted by the 10 percent daily limit on Monday. Only 15 stocks bucked the trend and closed higher.

The broad-based selling pressure might continue adding to concerns surrounding the outlook for China's economy, even though mainland stocks are likely to stage a rebound in coming days.

While the steep losses may ignite a shift among investors toward less risky assets, the impact on the nation's push for a more market-oriented equity market probably won't be excessive.

The downward trend in the market will be reversed someday, after market forces find an equilibrium for stock valuations.

And during this period, the nation is likely to move to a registration-based stock issuance system.

Rolling out this reform should have been done when investors were in a mood of optimism earlier in the year.

But even though we've missed that chance, the reform can still go ahead, as it will not have a big impact on the market during a period of bearish sentiment.

The impact of the stock market slide on the nation's push for a trading link between the bourses in Shenzhen and Hong Kong within the year will also be limited.

Hong Kong investors might take a wait-and-see attitude toward buying mainland stocks due to fears about continued volatility, but mainland investors are likely to be enthusiastic about investing in Hong Kong stocks that have lower price-to-earnings ratios, and consequently less risk.

Admittedly, the Chinese economy is not completely immune to the acute volatilities in the stock market.

The slump could dampen optimism about the overhaul of the State sector, as the process needs to be supported by a vibrant stock market.

But given that the fundamentals of China's economy are still sound, concerns about a heavy impact on the world's second-largest economy from stock market turbulence would be excessive.

The article was compiled based on an interview with Dong Dengxin, director of the Financial Securities Institute at Wuhan University of Science and Technology. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn