The Ministry of Finance announced Sunday it will lower the stamp tax from two to one per thousand beginning Monday.

An official with the ministry said the tax cut, which has been approved by the State Council, or the Chinese central government, is intended to help promote the growth of the securities markets.

Experts say the move will help reduce stamp tax revenues by billions of yuan per year, but the decision is good news for the country's bearish stock markets, which slumped to record lows in nearly six years during the past week.

Chinese stockmarkets have been bearish, and investment sentiment has been quite weak for the past several years, owing to irregularities by listed firms, securities firms and structural problems of the stock market system.

China imposed a six per thousand stamp tax on stock transactions when its stock markets were created since 1990. The tax rate was later readjusted a couple of times. China has collected more than 100 billion yuan (some 12 billion US dollars) in stamp tax on stock transactions since then.