BEIJING - China's securities regulator said Sunday night that the approval of initial public offerings (IPOs) would not be suspended though the number of new shares hitting the stock market will be cut.

No new companies will be listed in the market "in the near future" following announcements from 28 companies on Saturday to suspend their IPO plans, said Deng Ge, spokesperson of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

The approval of IPO applications will not stop but the number of companies getting listed and their capital raising will drop in the future, Deng said.

The stock market has been in the doghouse, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index tumbling 29 percent in three weeks, including a 12-percent loss last week.

The CSRC will investigate and punish market manipulation that is shorting A-shares via stock futures, Deng said.

More efforts will be made to crack down on stock market rumors, Deng said, urging the investors to be discriminative.

Beijing police said on Sunday that they had detained a man who spread a rumor online about someone leaping to his death due to the stock market slump.