China suspended initial public offerings, while brokerages pledged to buy shares and state media urged investors not to panic as officials intensified efforts to stop the steepest plunge in equities since 1992. Twenty-eight companies halted their IPOs, according to filings to the nation’s two exchanges Saturday. A group of 21 brokerages led by Citic Securities Co. will invest at least 120 billion yuan ($19.3 billion) in a stock-market fund, the Securities Association of China said the same day. Executives from 25 mutual funds vowed to buy shares and hold them for at least a year, according to an industry group ... (full story)